Four tourists, including 23-year-old British woman Eleanor Hawkins, are leaving Malaysia after pleading guilty to “obscene acts in public” for stripping off their clothes on a sacred mountain in Malaysia, their lawyer told the Guardian on Saturday.
“They are leaving now,” Ronny Cham said on the telephone. He said all four were checked into flights to leave.
Hawkins, from Derby and on her gap year, appeared with Canadian siblings Lindsey Petersen, 23 and Danielle Petersen, 22, and Dutch national Dylan Snel, 23, in court on Friday in Kota Kinabalu, the main town near Mount Kinabalu where photos posted online on 30 May showed them half dressed on a peak.
They were sentenced to a 5,000 Malaysian Ringgit (£860) and three days in jail from the time of arrest, which meant they were free to go on the same day.
Indigenous people on the island believe the mountain holds the spirit of their ancestors and some have suggested the disrespectful act caused of an earthquake that killed 18 people days later.
Of the 10 foreigners accused of stripping on the mountain only five have been arrested. Hawkins was detained when she tried to board a flight to leave. Malaysian police say they have informed border guards to look out for the other five on the offence of public indecency.
Cham said Hawkins was relieved to be returning home. “She is pleased and happy,” he told the Press Association.
After her conviction Hawkins’s father, Timothy, said the sentence his daughter received was “appropriate” and “fair”.
“I’m grateful that the Malaysian authorities reached this decision,” he said. “Eleanor knows what she did was wrong and disrespectful and she is deeply sorry for any offence she’s caused to the Malaysian people.
“We now look forward to having her back home but we don’t know when this will be as we’ve no contact with the consulate in Kuala Lumpur and have not spoken to Ellie.”
