Old woman assaulted over tiff with glamping site, attacker arrested

An elderly woman in Malacca who reportedly complained about a glamorous camping (glamping) site burning rubbish was assaulted by a young man who is related to the site's owners.

The assault was caught on CCTV, and went viral after the woman's granddaughter posted it on social media.

Police have since arrested the assailant who is related to the owners of The Baruh Glamping.

In the video, the unnamed 26-year-old man is seen chasing the 76-year-old woman, grabbing a stick from her, and hitting her multiple times, including a strike to the back of her head which caused her to fall.

The senior citizen, whose surname is Tan, subsequently lodged a police report over the matter.

In a statement, police identified the 26-year-old as the grandson of the owner of the camping site, while a police report filed by the victim stated that the youth was the son of the owner.

Police said the elderly woman also suffered soft-tissue injuries from the attack.

Tan and The Baruh Glamping occupy neighbouring lots in Tanjung Kling, Malacca.

According to a copy of the police report Malaysiakini sighted, there was a dispute between the senior citizen and The Baruh Glamping over alleged open burning by the latter.

Numerous complaints

Speaking to Malaysiakini, Tan's granddaughter - who only wanted to be identified as Tai - alleged that the camp has been burning garbage openly all year round.

She said her grandmother is in poor health from cancer, and the smog caused by the neighbour's open burning would further harm her health.

They had attempted to communicate with their neighbour and also tried to report it to the police as well as the Environment Department, but they were unable to stop the neighbours from continuing to burn rubbish, she added.

Tai said although the Environment Department had reportedly issued a warning letter to the camp, there were no substantial changes.

Instead, she alleged that the camp had intensified its efforts from burning garbage twice a week to doing so almost every day.

"We talked nicely at the beginning and wanted to solve it in a more civilised way, and we have been patient.

"Usually we would also advise grandma not to scold back and tell her not to walk out on her own.

"But yesterday we were not at home, and the smoke they burned blew into the house. That's why grandma went to confront them and told them to stop burning garbage," Tai said.

Melaka Tengah district police chief Christopher Patit said in a statement today that the assault began after Tan confronted the site owners about the open burning.

Self-defence claim

The Baruh Glamping, however, disputed Tai and Tan's version of events.

In a post this morning, it accused the elderly Tan of assaulting a 70-year-old woman who worked for them.

Claiming self-defence, they also claimed that they had only acted to chase away the senior citizen and seize her stick to prevent her from causing more harm.

The post did not address the open burning claims.

Instead, the camping site said their domestic trash is collected daily by the local council.

They also said that contrary to Tan's claims, they keep their camping site clean to ensure that there are no snakes or wild animals for mutual safety.

"Instead, we are accused of littering," they lamented.

When contacted, The Baruh Glamping said they had also filed a police report and would leave the matter to the police.

In a later statement, Malacca deputy police chief Md Nazri Zawawi said the alleged assailant was determined to have disability status, specifically mental disabilities due to an accident.

He added that the case was being investigated under Sections 323 and 506 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation respectively.

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