A District Judge in the State Courts acquitted a doctor of molestation charges today (Mar. 8), delivering her verdict on a case that had started after a consultation in 2017, The Straits Times (ST) reported.

Lui Weng Sun, 48, had been accused of molesting a female patient in a clinic in Jalan Tiga, by touching her left breast after pulling down her bra cup.

However, District Judge Jasvender Kaur found that the evidence put forward in support of the patient's accusations did not meet the required threshold of being "unusually convincing".

The requirement for evidence to be "unusually convincing" is the standard imposed when a court is called upon to decide solely on the basis of an eyewitness’s uncorroborated testimony, for both sexual and non-sexual offences.

Woman's evidence "confusing and contradictory"

CNA reported that Kaur found the woman's evidence "confusing and contradictory", as she had given different accounts of what happened in court and in her statements to the police.

Kaur pointed out that she had given differing accounts of how many times her shirt had been lifted up during the consultation, and also pointed out how the woman had told the court that her bra cup was turned downwards before she was molested, when she had previously told the police that the bra had been pulled down.

"Unusual" behaviour by boyfriend

Kaur also highlighted "highly unusual" behaviour on the part of the boyfriend, who had called Lui and asked for a face-to-face meeting, ST reported.

Lui had previously testified that the boyfriend hinted at monetary compensation in their communications, but said that he did not report the attempted blackmail as he did not have evidence to support this claim.

According to Lui, the boyfriend had voiced unhappiness over the fact that there was no chaperone in the room during Lui's allegedly-improper examination of the woman and mentioned a "jiao dai" (a Chinese term meaning "to hand over" or "to account for"), which Lui interpreted as referring to compensation.

On the other hand, the boyfriend said that he did not mention a monetary figure.

Due to a gag order to protect the woman's identity, neither she nor her boyfriend can be named.

The maximum penalty Lui faced for the molestation charge was two years in jail, as well as a fine or caning.

Top image by Matthias Ang