SINGAPORE: It was news reports of the criminal charges against Ken Lim Chih Chiang that persuaded one of his alleged victims to step forward, 11 years after her encounter with the music producer.
The singer-songwriter was 26 when Lim, best known as a judge on Singapore Idol, allegedly asked if she was a virgin and what would happen if he had sex with her right then on Jul 25, 2012.
It was only their second meeting. The woman had gone to meet Lim in his office at Hype Records for advice on her career in music, Deputy Public Prosecutor Gail Wong said on Monday (May 6).
After that exchange, Lim asked the woman to avoid telling her parents and boyfriend that she was meeting him, and asked if she was “still traumatised”, according to Ms Wong.
But she did not report what Lim said to her as she did not know that uttering sexually inappropriate words was a crime.
The woman, who is now based overseas, flew to Singapore to take the stand against Lim on Monday.
“Because, in her words to her sister: ‘Maybe I owe it to myself and all the other girls … now that I am older and wiser,’” Ms Wong told the court in her opening statement at the trial.
Lim, now 60, is battling a total of seven charges, which he will contest in five separate trials.
In March last year, he was charged with molesting a 25-year-old woman in his office on Nov 23, 2021.
After that, 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.
Lim allegedly asked one victim how she could “write deeper songs” if she was sexually inexperienced, and told another “that if she could have sex for nothing, why not have sex for something”.
Ms Wong said that the singer-songwriter had released an album before she met Lim, and went on to continue her music career without Lim’s help.
The court heard that Lim and the woman stopped talking in January 2013, after he told her about a new talent show to consider.
“Around this period, she told her voice coach Ken Lim was dodgy and also told her drummer Ken Lim was sleazy to her,” said Ms Wong, adding that both witnesses will testify.
The woman’s husband and family members will also testify about what she told them after her second meeting with Lim.
She realised what he had said to her could be criminal and made a police report after seeing reports of Lim’s charges for sexually insulting words in June last year, Ms Wong said.
“She has no motive to falsely testify against him. She is here today because it is true,” said the prosecutor before the woman took the stand.
The identities of Lim’s alleged victims are protected by gag orders. In Singapore, alleged victims of sexual offences give their evidence in private unless they opt to do so in open court.
Lim’s trial continues at the State Courts on Tuesday.
If he is convicted of molestation, he faces up to two years in jail, a fine, caning, or any combination of these punishments.
If found guilty of uttering sexually insulting words, he could be jailed for up to a year, fined, or both for each charge.
