Gopal Sri Ram JCA:

Introduction

[1] The appellant - I shall refer to him as the accused - was convicted of the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under the first limb of s 304 of the Penal Code and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. His appeal to the High Court was dismissed. He appealed to this Court and at the conclusion of arguments his appeal was dismissed by a majority decision. For reasons that will become apparent later in this judgment, I consider it my duty to enter my most vigorous dissent upon the result in this case.

The Case Against The Accused

[2] The nub of the prosecution's case against the accused was that on 19 April 1995, between 7.45 pm. and 9.00 pm. he intentionally caused the death of one Rabeah bte Abdul Hamid (whom I shall refer to as "the deceased") at a room in Wenworth Hotel, at Jalan Yew, Kuala Lumpur. The charge goes on to specify that the accused caused the deceased's death by strangling her with the strap of her handbag. It was therefore imperative for the prosecution to prove - at the end of the whole case - that the accused was present in the room at or about the material time.

[3] The evidence of circumstances adduced by the p