Elizabeth M. Chapman JC:

In the lower Court, the appellant was convicted of the offence specified in the following amended charge:

That you, on or about 4 February 1988, at about 10.20 a.m., at No.72, Istana Road, Kuching, in the State of Sarawak, did discharge an arm, to wit, a revolver 'Smith & amp; Wesson', 38 bearing the No.9447 F.6 and J.644908 and injured one Mariam Binti Fadil, without lawful justification or excuse for causing such injury or that you took all reasonable precautions to ensure that no such person was injured by such discharge, and you thereby committed an offence punishable under s.37 of the Arms Act, 1960.

He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment and a fine of RM5,000 in default 6 months' imprisonment. He now appeals to this Court against both conviction and sentence on a number of grounds. I propose to deal with the first two grounds together as they are inter-related. The point argued here is that the Magistrate had relied on the evidence of PW1 whom he considered as an experienced armament officer and as a result of this reliance on PW1 he had failed to consider whether the revolver [Exh.P2] was defective or not and capable of an accidental