KUCHING: A key female witness in the murder trial of two British students told the High Court yesterday that she saw a man using an object to attack two foreigners.
She observed that the attacker was small in size and not very tall, adding that the whole incident happened very quickly.
After the attack, the witness said she saw the attacker rush away from the scene in a vehicle.
She said she managed to see the vehicle’s licence plate number and that there were four persons in the car.
The woman testified that the incident unfolded around 4am, while she was cleaning tables and getting ready to finish work at a shop.
While cleaning up, she noticed two foreigners walking and then a car stopping.
She said a man emerged from the car, rushed at the two foreigners and then attacked them about 10 metres away from where she stood.
The witness said she could not see clearly which parts of the victims’ bodies were attacked by the suspect.
However, she said she could see that the suspect was holding a sharp object, but was unsure how he obtained the weapon.
She recalled that after he attacked the first foreigner, the suspect then moved on to attack the second foreigner.
The second foreigner ran to a bus shelter chased by the suspect, who then stabbed him twice.
The witness said she could not, however, see clearly which part of the victim’s body had been stabbed. She said she later saw the second foreigner collapse in front of the bus shelter.
During that time, the witness said she did not notice where the first victim was.
The woman said she then rushed back to the shop where she worked to look for her handphone, called a policewoman friend, and asked the friend to call for an ambulance.
She said she told her friend that she saw a man attack and stab two men.
At this point the prosecutor asked her to confirm whether she had told the policewoman on the phone that she saw three persons attacking a foreigner.
She then explained that during that time she was in a state of shock and panicked.
The witness said the policewoman told her to calm down and describe the situation and confirmed that one person had attacked and stabbed two men.
The policewoman then instructed her to wait outside the shop for other officers to arrive and give her statement to them.
When the prosecutor asked her to describe what the victims looked like at the time, she said the first foreigner was wearing black while the second was wearing grey.
The trial will continue on Monday.
Aidan Brunger and Neil Gareth Dalton, who were medical students doing their internship here, were killed on Aug 6 at Jalan Abell between 4.10am and 4.15am.
Both were found lying in pools of blood just a few metres apart.