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[UPDATED on Sunday, May 30 at 1:18pm: A person who identified themselves as a family member of the victim reached out to Mothership claiming that, contrary to the information provided in court documents, the victim and Lim were never in a relationship, but rather were friends. The article has been updated to include this additional information.]

Over the course of about nine months, a Singaporean man lied to a woman that he was a Chinese medium in order to trick her into having sex with him, as well as prostituting herself to at least six male customers and giving him her earnings.

On Thursday (May 20), 30-year-old Kenneth Lim Zhi Zhan was sentenced to a one-year jail term and a fine of S$5,000, according to Today.

Met through a mutual friend and dated briefly

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Lim and the woman — who cannot be named in order to protect her identity — met through a mutual friend in 2013.

They got along very well and soon became close friends. Court documents report that sometime in early-2014, when the woman was 18 years old, they got into a relationship. The relationship lasted a few months.

However, a person claiming to be a family member of the woman who contacted Mothership alleged that Lim and the woman were never in a relationship. Rather, the family member said, they were only friends.

Around the same time, the woman became infatuated with a man whose photo she had purportedly seen on her friend's phone.

She confided in Lim that she dreamt of the man often and that she was in love with him. She asked Lim to help her locate the man.

Shortly afterward, Lim and the woman broke up, court documents said.

Lied that he was a Chinese medium to have sex with her

Sometime in late-2014, the woman called Lim and told him that she had heard that the man she was infatuated with had passed away.

She told Lim that she missed the man very much, and that he kept appearing in her dreams. She asked Lim if he could help connect her with the man in the nether world, using a Chinese medium, and told him that she wanted to be with the man in her next life.

It was later revealed through police investigations that the man with whom the woman was infatuated did not exist, and was imaginary. The woman was also later diagnosed with having a history of depression with psychotic features.

Nevertheless, Lim decided to play along, telling her that he was a Chinese medium. He said that he could help her connect with the man, under the condition that she kept it a secret, otherwise the spirit would be chased away.

In December 2014, the woman told Lim about her persistent dreams about the man again. Lim lied to her, saying that the man wanted to "make love" with her, but to do so, the woman would have to have sex with Lim, so that their spirits could be reunited.

The woman agreed, and she and Lim subsequently met up at a hotel in Geylang and had sex. Lim had sex with the woman on several other occasions over the next few months, all while pretending it was part of helping her connect with the imaginary deceased man.

Told her to prostitute herself to earn money to send to deceased

Sometime in July 2015, after Lim had sex with the woman at his house, he told her that she needed to have sex with more people, so that she could earn money for Lim to purchase items for prayer.

He also told her that the deceased man wanted her to burn "hell money" so that he could use it in the nether world, and that he wanted the woman to earn the money by prostituting herself.

Lim suggested that the woman advertise her sexual services online, on a website called Locanto, and charge clients for her services. She agreed to do so, as she thought that Lim was being directed by the man who she was infatuated with in the nether world.

Lim then helped the woman set up a Locanto account under his username, putting up a notice that he had a friend who was in need of money and that she was "willing to try anything" for it.

According to investigations, between August and September 2015, the woman — who was 19 at the time — prostituted herself to at least six customers, and gave at least S$5,000 in cash to Lim.

Lim used the money to pay off his personal debts, and did not use it to purchase any "hell money" or items for prayer, as he had told the woman that he would.

Charged with living on the earnings of the prostitution of the woman

On Oct. 28, 2015, a female family member of the woman lodged a police report, in which she stated that she had discovered that the woman had been working as a prostitute for Lim, and that she had allegedly given her earnings to him.

The woman has been a patient at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) since September 2015.

On March 9, 2021, Lim was charged with knowingly living in part on the earnings of the prostitution of the woman. Another charge of procuring her for the purpose of prostitution was also taken into consideration.

Lim's lawyer argued that Lim had been diagnosed with "borderline intellectual functioning", which contributed to him not thinking about the consequences of his actions and prevented him from further exploring whether his actions were against the law.

According to Today, Lim said that he only realised that what he did was a crime after watching an episode of local television programme Crimewatch.

District Judge May Mesenas disagreed with Lim's lawyer's argument, and agreed instead with the IMH psychiatrist who found that Lim actually had average intellectual functioning, and that he was fully aware of his actions, Today reported.

"On the facts of the present case, it is submitted that [Lim] took advantage of the victim’s naivety and deceived her into entering the vice trade, for his own personal benefit," Deputy Public Prosecutor Asoka Markandu said.

The prosecution asked for at least 12 months' imprisonment and a fine of S$5,000, to offset the profits that he had made from the cash that the woman was paid by her clients and gave Lim.

The judge agreed, and sentenced him to one year's imprisonment and a S$5,000 fine.

Under Section 146(1) of the Women's Charter, Lim could have been been imprisoned for up to five years or fined up to S$10,000.

Top photo by Nigel Chua.