SABAH, MALAYSIA — A 24-year-old Chinese student’s scuba diving experience in the diving paradise of Semporna turned into a traumatic ordeal when she was allegedly kissed by a diving instructor’s assistant unexpectedly.
According to local media Sinar Harian, a 27-year-old suspect, was arrested by Malaysian police on Sunday.
The student, YiFang, shared her harrowing experience on her Douyin’s account. She stated that last Friday (5 May), she went to Mataking Island, a small private island with a resort located in Semporna, for scuba diving.
YiFang alleged that during the diving process, the assistant kissed her and continued to do so repeatedly.
The assistant also insisted on adding YiFang’s WeChat and contacted her after they returned to the shore, asking where she was staying and inviting her out.
Suspect allegedly asked for help from victim to lie about incident
YiFang told him she would return to China the next day and declined, citing that she needed to stick with her travel group.
“He continued to message me and express his desire to spend the last night with me until 11.00 pm that night. I was frightened by his behaviour,” she said.
YiFang mentioned that she did contact her tour guide from China but was told that it was “her own personal matter”.
It was not until the morning of 6 May that another tour guide from China contacted her and informed her that the travel company was concerned about the incident.
YiFang added that the suspect allegedly asked her to help him deceive the tourism agent by claiming she had sought him out to kiss her.
With encouragement from the travel company, YiFang filed a police report on the matter.
YiFang has since deleted her original post on Douyin, but her complaint has since gone viral and been shared on other social media and a local Facebook group.
Semporna police arrested a part-time scuba diving instructor assistant
On Monday (8 May), Assistant Superintendent Arif Abdul Razak, the Deputy Superintendent of Police for Semporna, confirmed the arrest of a 27-year-old man at 12.50 am on Sunday at his accommodation after a report was received from the victim, a Chinese tourist woman.
“A report was received from a Chinese tourist woman who claimed that at about 1 PM on Friday, she was kissed by a scuba diving instructor’s assistant while scuba diving in the waters of a resort island in this district.”
“The complainant subsequently made a police report the next day before heading to Tawau Airport to depart for Kuala Lumpur and then continuing her flight back to her home country,” he said.
Arif stated that immediate action was taken to arrest the suspect, who is a local part-time scuba diving instructor’s assistant at a scuba diving centre.
Investigations are being carried out under Section 354 of the Penal Code, and remand has been applied for under Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code until Thursday for further investigation.
