SINGAPORE: Former Singapore Idol judge Ken Lim Chih Chiang will contest all seven charges against him in five separate trials instead of one, a judge ruled on Friday (Nov 17).
District Judge Wong Peck made the decision after arguments for and against trying Lim on all seven charges in one joint trial – with the prosecution pushing for it, and the defence against.
Lim, 59, is accused of one count of molesting a 25-year-old woman in his office at Hype Records at Henderson Road on Nov 23, 2021.
After this charge was levelled against him, more police reports were filed, resulting in another six charges accusing him of insulting the modesty of another four women at his office or home between 1998 and 2013.
He is accused of asking women if they were virgins and saying things like “what if I have sex with you right now” or offering to help with their sexual inexperience.
PROSECUTION ARGUES FOR JOINT TRIAL
The prosecution on Friday argued that a joint trial should be allowed, saying that the offences Lim is accused of are of “a similar character”.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Gail Wong said there was a common thread binding the charges together in the modus operandi Lim allegedly adopted.
She said he committed the offences in his position as the director of Hype Records, targeting young women aged 18 to 26 who engaged with him in this capacity in a work context.
The women were either looking to work at Hype Records, speaking to him about a career in music or were artistes working with him or under his management, said Ms Wong.
The offences involve Lim making “sexual overtures to the victims” with the common thread of Lim offering himself as a potential sexual partner and making actual sexual contact with the sole alleged molestation victim, said Ms Wong.
She added that the defence had repeatedly urged the prosecution to expedite the trial so Lim could clear his name, and a joint trial would do so.
This way, he would not have stood-down charges to deal with and an “albatross around his neck”, she said.
“He wants to clear his name quickly, he wants an expedited trial, and we say, your honour, please grant him his wish,” said Ms Wong.
Lim’s lawyers, Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng, Mr Paul Loy and Mr Calvin Ong of WongPartnership objected strongly to the prosecution’s call for a joint trial.
Mr Tan said it was “furthest from the truth” that a joint trial would be doing Lim a favour.
He said his client wanted to meet the first charge of molestation head on. But instead of doing so, the prosecution developed six more charges and used this to say they were acceding to the defence’s request by putting all seven together.
“Your honour, that’s rich,” said Mr Tan.
He said the prosecution’s argument that Lim had committed the offences in his capacity as Hype Records director was nowhere in the charges.
The prosecution also amended a charge in October to add that it was in the context of a work interview to draw some nexus between the circumstances in the seven charges, alleged Mr Tan.
He cited a past case that stated a joint trial was appropriate because of proximity of time, proximity of location and when the offences arose from the same set of facts.
However, Lim’s oldest charge dates back to 1998, some 25 years ago, he said. Some charges did not state a definite date, while some show a time period of four years.
“Justice hurried is justice buried,” said Mr Tan. “My client is entitled to defend the allegations against him, without the prosecution throwing other charges that are unrelated at him.”
The judge told the defence that they would then be looking at potentially five trials – because even if the molestation charge was tried separately from the ones involving the insult of modesty, the four victims in the latter are different and unrelated to each other.
RATIONALE BEHIND FIVE TRIALS
“Yes, we may end up having four to five trials,” said Mr Tan. “Expediency should not be the reason why joint trials are being ordered. Justice hurried is justice buried, and my client is very clear – Let it be five trials, but he doesn’t want to be prejudiced.”
In response, Deputy Public Prosecutor Gail Wong shot back: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
District Judge Wong Peck took a few hours to deliberate before ruling that Lim should not be tried on all seven charges together in one trial.
Instead, she ordered that he be tried in five trials – one for the molestation, another for a second alleged victim who accuses him of two incidents, and three more for three other victims.
She found that a joint trial of all six insulting modesty charges would be prejudicial to Lim, since the five victims in those charges do not know each other.
The parties are to attend a pre-trial conference to discuss matters such as which charges to proceed on first for trial and when it will begin.
If found guilty of molestation, he faces a jail term of up to two years, a fine or both. The punishment also includes caning, but offenders above 50 are not caned.
For each count of insulting a woman’s modesty, he faces up to a year’s jail, a fine or both if convicted.