Ken Lim trial: Defence seeks to impeach father of alleged victim, points to discrepancies in police statement, court testimonies

SINGAPORE — The defence counsel for former Singapore Idol judge Ken Lim Chih Chiang sought to question the credibility of an alleged victim’s father, suggesting that the woman had prepared her father on what to say to the police.

Lim’s lawyer, Mr Paul Loy from Wong Partnership, pointed to “material discrepancies” in the father’s police statement and what the duo later said in court.

Mr Loy told the court on Friday (May 10) that he wanted “to see if those discrepancies can be explained”, or if the witness ought to be “impeached”.

The alleged victim, a singer-songwriter, had accused Lim of asking her “are you a virgin” and “what if I have sex with you right now” at a car park on the night of July 25 in 2012.

Mr Loy noted that the woman had told the court that she had spoken to her father in her parents’ bedroom after the incident on the same night, and that her mother had been asleep at the time.

The woman’s father, however, said in his testimony that she had spoken to both him and his wife, while they were at the dining table at home.

In response, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Gail Wong said that it was “not in the witness’ evidence” that she had only spoken about the incident to her father and not her mother.

Instead, she said that the woman had told the counsel at “various points” that she could not remember the details.

The defence then pointed to what the father had said in his statement to the police last year, that he was “unable to recall how she feels about the episode”. On Friday, however, he told the court that he “knew she was upset”.

Responding, the prosecution said that there had been an error in the earlier transcript of the father’s statement to the police.

An amended copy of the statement, which DPP Wong handed out in court, read: “I’m unable to describe how she feels about the episode as I could not recall it. I knew she was upset and I did advise her.”

Mr Loy pointed out that in the same police statement, the woman’s father did not mention where the alleged incident had taken place. However, the father had told the court on Friday that it had taken place in Lim’s car.

Mr Loy said: “If I may, the discrepancies are not only on what is written per se, but also on what is not written.

“My submission is that those omissions are material because the witness has now come before court to give a more fleshed out version of events.”

DPP Wong agreed that the car was not mentioned in the woman’s father’s statement to the police last year.

'PREPARATION OF WITNESS'

Mr Loy also accused the alleged victim of possibly having prepared her father on what to say to the police.

Referring to chat logs of messages that were sent by the woman to her sister in June 2023 after she had filed the police report, Mr Loy quoted the woman saying that “preparing their (parents) would be harder”.

He added: “We do see from the evidence that there appears to have been... some preparation of the witness.

“I would like to ask the witness, how is it that (the father) is able to state all these details now when they were not stated in his (police) statement on Aug 2 — especially, when on the evidence, there is suggestion that his daughter had spoken to him the day before (he submitted his police statement).”

At the close of Friday’s hearing, DPP Wong asked the woman’s father if his daughter had told him what to say to the police. He denied this.

The defence also called into question the credibility of the woman’s husband, who had testified in court as a witness as well.

After questioning the husband's “hazy” recollections of what had occurred after the incident in 2012, Mr Loy said: “Because (the woman) is your wife, you are simply not an objective witness.”

The woman is one of four people who have pressed charges against Lim, now 60, after he was first charged in March last year with molesting a 25-year-old woman in his office on Nov 23, 2021. The five alleged victims cannot be named due to a gag order.

Lim will return to court on May 17 for a pre-trial conference.

Another six witnesses will be cross-examined in July.