The British gap year tourist Eleanor Hawkins has pleaded guilty in a court in Malaysia after stripping on the country’s highest peak.

Arriving handcuffed at court in Kota Kinabalu for a second time, Hawkins and three other tourists had to battle through a throng of reporters to enter the building. The four pleaded guilty to committing obscene acts in a public place.

The charge, read out in court, was that at 6.45am on 30 May in the vicinity of Mount Kinabalu they carried out “obscene acts in a public place under 294 (a) of the penal code”. They were also accused of “excessive noise and ignoring the advice (of their guide)”.



All four avoided trial by pleading guilty. Their lawyer said they were willing to offer a public apology and called for them to be fined and deported.

The public prosecutor called for a sentence to deter others, and said the tourists’ behaviour had caused “annoyance to many Malaysians”.

British tourist Eleanor Hawkins arrives at court in Kota Kinabalu Guardian

He urged the judge to take into account the public sentiment, adding that “claiming to be young and innocent is not acceptable”.

Hawkins, 23, was first to stand in court to hear the charges. Asked if she pleaded guilty, she replied “I do”. She was handcuffed to the Canadian Danielle Peterson, 22, who also pleaded guilty.



The two men, Peterson’s brother, Lindsey, and Dutchman Dylan Snel, both 23, also pleaded guilty.



The hearing was adjourned for 10 minutes after the four disagreed with some of the facts that were presented to them by a court aid.

The four tourists, who had been remanded in jail, could be sentenced to up to three months in prison or fined, or both. Sentencing is expected shortly.

Before the court hearing Hawkins had told her father, Tim, by telephone that she expected to be charged. He told the Guardian: “She doesn’t want to second-guess what’s going to happen. So we are just waiting for the outcome. It could go either way. We have been up all night waiting.”

Earlier on Friday, the chief police officer investigating the case confirmed all four tourists would be charged but he refused to say what sentence the police were looking for.

Senior police officers from Kota Kinabalu have been in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, for meetings on how to proceed with a case that has caused controversy in the south-east Asian country.

Many residents believe Mount Kinabalu, where the offence is alleged to have taken place, holds the spirits of their ancestors and some have suggested the disrespectful act caused an earthquake that killed 18 people days later.

The tourists have also breached customary law in the Malaysian state of Sabah, the northern half of the island of Borneo, and could face an indigenous court. It is not clear what type of punishment they would receive from this court, which can order community work and fines for offences.

The group of backpackers on top of the Malaysian mountain. Photograph: Rex Shutterstock

Sabah’s chief tribal priest, Tindarama Aman Sirom Simbuna, told Malaysia’s Star newspaper that the tourists should be fined in line with local custom. It quoted him saying: “According to local beliefs, the spirit of the mountain is very angry. This fine, called sogit in the native tongue, should be in the form of 10 male or female buffalo.”

Police sources have said that, based on previous convictions, the sentence in the civil court is likely to be small. “This is a small case. It will likely be a small fine with no jail time,” the source said. “We care more about drugs.”

The four tourists had already appeared in purple outfits at Karamunsing police station in Kota Kinabalu, the main town near the mountain. Since then they have been held in the city jail, a two-storey building with 24-hour armed guards, surrounded by two four-metre-high (12ft) wire fences topped with barbed wire.



Police in Malaysia are looking for six other foreigners who are wanted for public indecency, a police officer involved in the case told the Guardian on Friday. “We think they are still in Sabah,” the officer revealed on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media. “There is a possibility they have already left the country.”

He said Hawkins and her fellow detainees did not identify the others who were with them: “They said they didn’t know their full names, only nicknames.”

Another police source said border guards had been informed and were hoping to catch the others at airports.