Accused in rape trial claims he had affair with woman
iStock file photo
SINGAPORE — He claimed that they were having an affair and got friends to testify for him, saying that he and the young woman were always seen as an item. He also said they had played a drinking game on the night of the alleged rape where kissing was the forfeit for the losing couple.
But the account by Ong Soon Heng — who has been accused of abducting and raping the woman — contained inconsistencies, charged prosecutors on Tuesday (April 11), since his tale that she had consented to having sex with him jarred with how Ong had said she was so intoxicated that she could not get out of bed until the next morning.
The 40-year-old bunker surveyor, who took the stand last Friday and on Tuesday, testified that the woman, 15 years his junior, was the one who suggested going to his house at Hume Heights after a party at popular nightspot Zouk.
While he agreed that the woman had passed out on the backseat of his car on their way home from Zouk, Ong maintained that she had agreed to have sex with him.
The incident, which took place in the wee hours of July 24, 2014, came to light after the woman’s boyfriend located her using the Find my iPhone app, and later found her “lying in a stupor” next to Ong in the latter’s house, wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt that were not hers.
During a trial which started late last month, the court heard that the woman, who cannot be named due to a court order, became acquainted with Ong, a divorcee, during her internship at a diner. The woman tolerated Ong’s advances to avoid jeopardising her internship, which she regarded as crucial for her career prospects, the prosecution had said.
On Tuesday, the prosecution tried to tear apart Ong’s testimony that he had an affair with the woman, pointing out that he had left her to the care of others in the club, and “did not even know until someone informed (him) that she had passed out on a bench”.
“All these show you weren’t in a secret relationship (with her), she was just one of the other girls there…When you saw her lying unconscious, you decided to bring her back to your home and have your way with her,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Sellakumaran Sellamuthoo.
He also charged that Ong’s two friends were lying on the stand to support the accused’s case.
Mr Handoyo Halim, the director of a construction company and Ong’s friend of 10 years, testified that he had believed Ong and the woman were an item because they behaved in an intimate manner.
That was why he had no qualms inviting the two for a drinking game at Zouk that night, where the losing couple had to kiss, Mr Handoyo told the court.
“From my point of view, the behaviour between (Ong and the woman) when they were in Zouk seems like they are a couple,” said Mr Handoyo.
The prosecution, however, alleged that Mr Handoyo had spun the tale to help Ong, pointing to a previous witness who was also at the party, but could not recall the game taking place.
Mr Sellamuthoo also challenged the account by Ong’s housemate, Mr Benjamin Lim, who claimed that he had seen the woman make her way, unassisted, from the main door of Ong’s house to the car park, the morning after the incident.
Pointing to evidence that she was still “drifting in and out of consciousness” in the hospital later that day and Ong’s own testimony that she was “unstable” and had to be supported to his house, Mr Sellamuthoo asked: “Against that evidence, yours is that she walked out from the gate to the carpark that morning, barely one hour after what I just described to you, completely unaided.”
Both Mr Handoyo and Mr Lim maintained that they were telling the truth.
The trial continues on Wednesday (April 12).
