Witness lying about not having close friendship with man who sexually abused daughter: Prosecution
SINGAPORE — He claimed he knew the 43-year-old who was convicted of sexually abusing his daughter as a “non-close friend” after they played football together from 2012.
He also claimed that they have never travelled together to Malaysia, and their paths merely crossed one time there.
However, Mr Muhammad Ridzwan Idris fumbled for words when the prosecution produced evidence of his travel records on Wednesday (Oct 3), and he could not explain to the court why he appeared to have made four trips to Malaysia with the man, the first being in 2011.
The High Court hearing, which began on Tuesday, was held after the convict wanted to appeal against his conviction and sentence. He found Mr Ridzwan as a witness to back up his defence that he has a “deformed” penis and therefore could not have had sex with his daughter — whom he was found guilty of abusing from 2011 to 2014 since she was 11.
The convict cannot be named to protect his daughter’s identity.
He was sentenced last year to 23.5 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane. The Court of Appeal will proceed with his appeal only after the High Court has heard the new evidence.
Zooming in on Mr Ridzwan’s testimony on Wednesday that he knew the convict in 2012, the prosecution produced in court four records from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, which suggested that they knew each other even before 2012, and their relationship was not as simple as described.
The first record of them travelling together to Malaysia appeared to be in March 12, 2011, when they passed the Singapore customs three minutes apart from each other. Mr Ridzwan travelled in a motorcycle while the man was in a car.
Three other records showed that they went to Malaysia in the same car on Feb 6, March 19 and March 27 in 2013. Each of their visits lasted four to five hours.
When cross-examined by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Mohamed Faizal Mohamed Abdul Kadir, who asked if he is still maintaining that he had never gone to Malaysia with the convict, Mr Ridzwan replied that he had said so because he could not remember, but looking at the records, he recalled that he had travelled to Malaysia with him at least three times.
He is uncertain, though, if they had travelled together in 2011.
When asked what they did during those visits, Mr Ridzwan said he could not remember any other activity other than them having a meal together.
DPP Faizal said that Mr Ridzwan lied about his relationship with the convict, and “intentionally hid” the fact that he had gone to Malaysia with him several times.
“(The two of you have) much more interaction than (your) affidavit suggested,” he added.
“I put it to you that you are intentionally lying about the nature of your friendship to mislead the court to think that you are nothing more than non-close friends.”
In response, Mr Ridzwan insisted that he is not close to the convict.
Previously, the court heard that Mr Ridzwan was the second witness the man found after a first witness backed out in January this year because the witness’ wife did not want him to get involved in the appeal.
The man said he met Mr Ridzwan by chance along Bussorah Street on Feb 3 this year, and later found out in their chat that Mr Ridzwan had seen his penis before while they were standing next to each other at the urinals in a toilet in 2013.
He then asked Mr Ridzwan, who agreed to be his witness, to meet his lawyer Ramesh Tiwary on Feb 8.
In both the convict’s account on Tuesday and Mr Ridzwan’s affidavit, the two men said they did not discuss the shape of the “deformed” penis with each other, though Mr Ridzwan later submitted two drawings of it as part of his affidavit.
On Wednesday, DPP Faizal told Mr Ridzwan that it was a “complete fabrication” on both their parts in saying that they did not talk about what the penis looked like.
The prosecution also uncovered other inconsistencies, such as what happened on Feb 3 and the trip to the office of the convict’s lawyer on Feb 8.
While the convict said that he did not attend the meeting between Mr Ridzwan and his lawyer, Mr Ridzwan said that his friend met up with him and they went to the law firm together. He was in the room, too, when Mr Ridzwan first met Mr Tiwary.
DPP Faizal again said that Mr Ridzwan is “lying about the circumstances” of the Feb 3 meeting, adding that Mr Ridzwan had “connived to give false evidence” on his friend’s behalf between Jan 19, the date the convict’s appeal was filed, and Feb 9, the day Mr Ridzwan affirmed his affidavit.
The prosecution and defence will next make their submissions for the appeal, before the case is sent back to the Court of Appeal.
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