KOTA KINABALU, Sept 10 — A police witness told the Coroner’s Court today that a fall simulation in the case of 13-year-old Zara Qairina Mahathir may not have fully reflected the actual incident, but was “more or less” representative.
Inspector Maidon Bernadus, who was part of the team that carried out the reconstruction, told the Coroner’s Court that the mannequin used did not replicate all human characteristics, noting that it lacked human joints and was 27cm taller than Zara.
“The simulation is not exactly the same, but more or less,” Maidon said when questioned by counsel Abdul Fikry Jaafar Abdullah, who asked if the exercise provided a 100 per cent picture of the real incident.
“This is because we used a mannequin instead of a live being. So it doesn’t necessarily show the real situation but more or less,” Maidon added.
Abdul Fikry Jaafar Abdullah is part of the defence legal team representing four of the teenagers accused of bullying Zara.
The court heard that the mannequin sustained damage during the first drop, including broken legs and cracked bricks that had been taped around its waist.
The same mannequin was then used for a second simulation.
Only two simulations were conducted.
Maidon said the team considered bricks “suitable” to be sellotaped to the waist of the 10kg mannequin to reach her weight of 53kg, though he denied that this caused uneven weight distribution.
When questioned by counsel Shahlan Jufri, he admitted he was not a biomechanical expert and had never conducted a fall simulation for an inquest since becoming an investigating officer in 2016.
He said he was unfamiliar with the term ATD (anthropomorphic test device) or crash test dummies, which have joints and better replicate the body’s movements during a fall or impact.
“This is the first time I’ve heard of it,” he told the court.
Shahlan pointed out that Zara’s actual body position at the scene differed from that of the mannequin in the video — Zara was found face up, while the mannequin landed face down. Maidon acknowledged there were no exact similarities.
“Not the same, but more or less,” he repeated.
The court also heard that each scenario was simulated only once — one drop without force and one with a so-called “minimal push,” which Maidon deemed sufficient.
He confirmed there was no quantifiable measurement of the force used, despite four officers pushing the mannequin simultaneously in the second video.
He said the decision to conduct the reconstruction was based on instructions from the investigating officer, Inspector Wong Yew Zhung, and that no independent biomechanical expert had been consulted.
“If the police wanted such verification, it would require orders from a superior officer,” Maidon said.
The mannequin used in the reconstruction has since been tendered as a court exhibit.
