GEORGE TOWN, April 7 — It has been more than six months since Rina Minda Sari survived being hit repeatedly on her head with a hammer but the trauma and pain remained.

The 47-year-old housewife said she still occasionally felt throbbing on her head where she was hit even after the wounds have healed.

“I constantly live in fear now and I am still traumatised from the incident,” she told reporters in a press conference called by Jelutong MP RSN Rayer.

She said the neighbour who attacked her was charged but is now out on bail while his family has continued to live in the house next to them.

According to her police report on the incident, she had heard sounds coming from upstairs of her home in Taman Tenggiri in Seberang Jaya at about 10am on September 11 last year.

“There was no one else at home besides my husband and I and we were both downstairs so I went up to investigate the sounds,” she recounted.

She said she walked in on their neighbour rummaging through her room so she immediately confronted him.

“He started attacking me with a hammer and repeatedly hit my head,” she said.

She said blood was spurting from her wounds but he had continued to hit her while she screamed for help and crawled to the stairs to get away.

The man only stopped when her husband, Ahmad Hussin Hassan, came to stop him and called the police.

She said the neighbour had tried to break open all of her cupboards to look for valuables.

“We found out that he had entered my house through a window in one of my children’s rooms,” she said.

While the man was arrested, he was charged with Section 324 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon.

Rayer said the section only carries a jail sentence of up to 10 years or with fine or any two of such punishments.

He said the sentence for the section is too light as it does not have a mandatory jail sentence and the charge did not take into account that the suspect was in the midst of committing robbery when he attacked the victim.

“Under this section, if the suspect pleads guilty, he may only be given a fine and not a jail sentence,” he said.

He said a legal representation was already sent to the Attorney General Chambers (AGC) to reclassify the charge against the suspect to a more serious offence.

“The victim of this case was seriously injured by the suspect while he was in the process of committing robbery,” he said.

He added that the victim could have been killed or suffered worse injuries if her husband had not intervened.

He said it was not a mere argument out in the street that led to an altercation.

He said the case should be reclassified and the suspect charged under Section 394 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt while attempting to commit robbery.

This section carries a jail term of up to 20 years and shall be liable to fine or whipping too.

He said the case can also be classified under Section 397 of the Penal Code for causing grievous hurt while armed during a robbery which provides compulsory whipping and jail term.

“We hope the AG Chambers will look into this and amend the charge against the suspect to a more serious offence,” he said.