Daphne breaks silence...

Sabah-hailed Malaysian TV host Daphne Iking who recently found herself in the news for the wrong reason, has finally broken her silence.

Daphne, whose husband Ryan has brought her man friend Choy to court for allegedly "enticing" her, spoke to Reena Raj of Malay Mail, Malaysia's only English afternoon daily this week. In a comparatively conservative society like Malaysia's, the Malay Mail is probably the closest you can get in relation to the gossip tabloids of the Western mainstream media.

Reena's article, published Tuesday, was titled: "Daphne moves on with life - TV host not allowing enticement case to get to her".

The full article reads:-

Ravishing TV presenter, host and brand ambassador Daphne Iking is not letting the high-profile enticement case before the courts to get to her.

"It is painful and annoying but I am able to endure it," she said. "I've moved on."

Daphne's husband Ryan Chong has dragged managing director Choy Khin Ming to court in a private prosecution under Section 498 of the Penal Code for "enticing or taking away or detaining with a criminal intent a married woman".

"This is not my case. It's funny, my name is associated with the case, but I've got nothing to do with it and therefore I will not be present at any of the hearings," she said.

Daphne, who is currently seperated from her husband, said her 21-month-old daughter Isobel means the world to her and "keeps me sane".

She refused to say for how long she has been seperated from her husband, as she didn't want it to affect her daughter's life.

"I've lost a couple of jobs because of this publicity, but I have also got some new offers. I am now working in a play, something I always wanted to do," she said.

Daphne is in a play titled Whack's Bar that will be staged from Oct 1 at the Petaling Jaya Arts Centre. She said the court case had revealed the number of true friends she had, adding her parents and siblings were with her, giving her the moral support she needed.

"I'm blessed to have so many caring and understanding friends, but there are one or two who don't understand. But the support of friends and fans is more than I expected."

Meanwhile, at the Kuala Lumpur magistrate's court yesterday, magistrate Mohd Faizi Che Abu said he would prepare the grounds of his decision rejecting the defence application to recuse him for Choy's defence counsel Jagjit Singh and Akbardin Abdul Kader to be submitted for their appeal to the High Court.

In the hearing on Aug 22, Akbardin sought for the case to be tried by another magistrate on the grounds that Mohd Faizi had heard the statement of complaint and issued the summons against Choy.

He cited Section 128 of the Criminal Procedure Code that stated that an accused shall be entitled to require that the case be tried by another magistrate when a magistrate takes cognisance of an offence upon his knowledge or suspicion that an offence had been committed.

Mohd Faizi rejected the defence's request to adjourn the case, saying he had no personal knowledge of the offence and had followed the law to determine whether there was sufficient grounds to issue a summons.

On Aug 26, Akbardin filed a notice of appeal against Mohd Faizi's decision to try the case. But yesterday, Mohd Faizi said he was being transferred and the High Court would decide on the magistrate who would hear the case from now on.

The hearing on Dec 9 and 10 will remain.

"We will not withdraw the notice of appeal that we had filed and will wait for a decision from the High Court," Akbardin said.

Choy was seated in the public gallery during the hearing.