Tourist who stripped naked on sacred mountain returns to UK
One of the tourists jailed for posing topless on a sacred Malaysian mountain has made a public apology after returning home to the UK.
Eleanor Hawkins, 23, from Derbyshire, told of her relief at being in the UK after being fined £860 and jailed for three days for stripping off along with several other backpackers on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo.
She said: "I know my behaviour was foolish and I know how much offence we all caused to the local people of Sabah.
"For that I’m truly sorry."
Hawkins, together with Canadians Lindsey and Danielle Peterson, and Dutchman Dylan Snel admitted causing a public disturbance on Mount Kinabalu.
The events caused outrage in Malaysia, with locals feeling they had angered mountain gods and triggered an earthquake in which 18 people died.
They were jailed for three days, but their sentences were back-dated to reflect time already served.
The judge at Kota Kinabalu Magistrates’ Court said the climbers had shown remorse and ordered the jail terms should run from 9 June.
Prosecutors had alleged that the four, along with six others, climbed the mountain on May 30 to see the sunrise and had then challenged each other to take off their clothes.
Their lawyer said they had ignored pleas not to remove their clothes, but did not verbally abuse the guide as the prosecutor had initially alleged.
According to BBC reports, the defence lawyer asked the judge to not make an example of the climbers because the widespread international media coverage had traumatized them enough.
Fellow passengers on the Malaysian Airlines flight to Heathrow, which Hawkins returned on, were reportedly asked to stay in their seats while the infamous tourist was escorted from the plane to meet her waiting parents.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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