Malaysian death judge who sentenced Kiwi to hang said he was reluctant servant

Aaron and Lorraine Cohen are led to Malaysia's High Court for their drugs trial in 1987. Photo / AP, NZ Herald archives

Thirty years ago today Kiwi Lorraine Cohen became the first white woman to be sentenced to hang in Malaysia. Today we look at what was described as a "sensational" sentencing after she was caught trying to smuggle heroin out of the country.

When Lorraine Cohen was sentenced to die, the Malaysian hanging judge said he was a "reluctant but obedient" servant of the country's lawmakers.

On hearing that she faced the gallows, Cohen reportedly remained standing in the High Court dock, staring blankly at the judge for several seconds, before an official told her to sit.

"By the time sentence was passed on [her son] Aaron 15 minutes later, Lorraine was in tears. Mother and son clasped each other's hands tightly," the New Straits Times wrote of the hearing, which was held on September 1, 1987.

Herald report of the Cohens' sentencing. Source: NZPA, NZ Herald archives

The Auckland mother and son had been caught at a Malaysian airport trying to smuggle heroin out of the country in their underwear in 1985.

Lorraine - who died in 2014, aged in her early 70s - and her son were charged with trafficking.

The trial judge accepted that Aaron, but not Lorraine, was an addict at the time of their arrest. The charge against Aaron, who was found with a smaller amount of heroin than his mother, was reduced to possession. He was sentenced to a whipping and life imprisonment.

The mother's sentence was reduced, on appeal, to life imprisonment after a judge accepted the 140g of heroin found on her was for her own use.

Both were pardoned - at the third attempt - and released in 1996, after more than 11 years in prison.

At the sentencing, Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Haji Abdullah told the court that Malaysia's death sentence for heroin trafficking was well known, the New Straits Times reported.

Lorraine, "being no stranger to Malaysia, cannot complain that she did not know the law and the penalty for trafficking".

"Every visitor who comes to Malaysia must have read the warning boldly stated on the embarkation cards and the billboards at all entry points. Therefore, to say that the warning did not actually explain the meaning of trafficking is no excuse."

"Mandatory sentence is one field of the criminal [law] where my function as a judge can be described as 'mechanical' because we judges become the reluctant but obedient servants of the lawmakers.

"Accordingly, I sentence [Lorraine] to death by hanging."

To Aaron, who had been found with 34.6g of heroin, the judge said: "You may consider yourself very lucky to escape the gallows by the skin of your teeth, so to speak. I hope you will learn a bitter lesson for the great risk you have taken in this case."

Anyone found with 15g of more of heroin is considered a dealer under Malaysian law.

Lorraine Cohen in 2003. Photo / Dean Purcell

While in prison, Lorraine was diagnosed with breast cancer and treated in hospital. The disease returned years later, but in the months before her death, she told the Herald on Sunday that she was free of cancer.

She was also free of drugs, but this remained a struggle.

"It's very hard. It's always in your head. You can clean your body up but getting it out of your brain - you're always looking for that first time again, which never happens."

Aucklander Charles Chan, who in 1987 was associate editor of Malaysian newspaper the Star, recalls that, by the country's standards, the case was not controversial.

"It was sensational; it was the first time a white woman was sentenced to hanging.

"I think in general people accepted she was sentenced correctly because other people were similarly sentenced to death. The death sentence was mandatory. They would be upset if she was exempted while other people were given the death sentence."

Australians Brian Chambers and Kevin Barlow were hanged in Malaysia in 1986 after being convicted of heroin trafficking.