Alleged victim 'not a credible witness': Court acquits ex-S'pore Idol judge Ken Lim of 1 sexual comments charge

Former Singapore Idol judge Ken Lim was acquitted on Dec. 11 of making sexual comments to a woman 12 years ago.

A district judge had found the woman not to be a credible witness as she did not have a clear recollection of the meeting's material aspects.

The judge said the allegations were also not supported by text messages between Lim and the woman then.

Five women have accused Lim of molestation and insult of modesty. Their identities are protected by gag orders.

The 60-year-old, who was handed a total of seven charges, is contesting each victim's allegations in five separate criminal trials.

The verdict on Dec. 11 is for the first of the five.

What happened

The woman, then 26, accused Lim of asking sexually inappropriate questions at Hype Records’ premises in Henderson Road on Jul. 25, 2012.

An aspiring singer-songwriter, the woman had approached Lim to learn more about the music industry.

Lim was in his late 40s and an executive director of Hype Records in 2012.

The woman claimed that during the second meeting with Lim, he had asked if she was a virgin and what would happen if he had sex with her right then.

Lim denied the allegations, saying they were "blatant" lies and that she took his criticism of her singing "too personally".

Judge did not find the victim's testimony to be "unusually convincing"

According to her grounds of decision, District Judge Wong Peck said that the burden of proof lies with the prosecution to prove Lim's guilt "beyond reasonable doubt".

For this case, the judge explained that where the alleged victim's word was pitted against Lim's, the alleged victim's testimony has to be "unusually convincing" to overcome doubts that might arise from the "lack of corroboration".

However, the judge opined that the woman had embellished evidence about her meeting with Lim and that there were material inconsistencies in the prosecution’s evidence.

For instance, the woman had recalled confiding to her boyfriend that Lim was sleazy but could not recall how many details she had told him.

There were also inconsistencies in the woman's statement to the police and in court, where she told the police that the insulting words were uttered first, followed by the smoking. But in court, the sequence was reversed.

The judge noted that her "cheerful exchanges" with her friends, family members, and fans also suggest that she was "not traumatised nor in a blur" after the second meeting with Lim.

For instance, after the alleged incident on the night itself, she replied in a cheerful tone to her fans via Twitter, thanking them for their appreciation of her singing.

The woman agreed that in her replies to her fans, she was not in a blur, nor was she traumatised, but tried to explain that she was only in a blur about the accused.

WhatsApp messages also showed cheerful exchanges with her family members.

"There was nothing in the lighthearted exchange to even remotely suggest that the insulting words were said to the complainant, and as a result, she was traumatised by such an occurrence," the judge stated.

"Dark side" and deleting messages

The woman had testified in court that during the second meeting, Lim told her to smoke, take drugs, sleep around, cheat on her boyfriend, and go to the “dark side” because her music “will not sell and not cool enough to attract listeners”.

Text messages exchanged between Lim and the woman at that time also did not substantiate the woman's accusations, where the judge found Lim's explanations for the "dark side" and his reasons for requesting the woman to delete the messages to be "more plausible".

Lim said that as a music producer and owner of a record label, he would not have advised her to take drugs, sleep around and cheat on her boyfriend as such behaviour was scandalous and bad publicity for the record label company and the artiste.

Instead, Lim reasoned that their conversation was related to the “dark” meaning behind the lyrics of the songs.

The woman said she believed Lim requested for the messages to be deleted because he was advising her to do “things that were uncomfortable," like smoking cigarettes and asking her to cheat on her boyfriend.

Lim said the request was because she had not tried smoking before, so her parents and boyfriend might think the accused was a bad influence since she had her first cigarette with him.

Woman had possible motive to falsely accuse Lim

The woman had a possible motive to falsely accuse Lim due to being hurt by his criticism of her singing and songwriting, the judge added.

She had admitted in court that she was"ultra-sensitive when receiving negative criticism" and that Lim's "criticisms during the first and second meetings had upset her," the judge noted.

"Although she initially denied that she was looking for the accused to sign her to a recording contract, she subsequently admitted that she had nurtured a 'small hope' that she might secure a recording contract," said the judge.

Since Lim had already informed the woman that he was not signing her, the judge reasoned, "It did not make sense for him to utter the lewd words and make the indecent proposal as it was highly unlikely that she would react positively or take up his offer of sex."

When asked by Mothership if the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) had any comments on the matter, an AGC spokesperson said the AGC would study the Court’s judgment and decide on the next course of action.

Lim was accused of molesting a 25-year-old woman in 2021

In March 2023, Lim was charged with molesting a 25-year-old woman in his office on Nov. 23, 2021.

More police reports were filed subsequently.

This culminated in another six charges accusing him of insulting the modesty of another four women at his office or home between 1998 and 2013, including telling one woman “that if she could have sex for nothing, why not have sex for something".

The charges are scheduled to be heard over five trials.

Lim's second trial is scheduled to resume on Feb. 4, 2025.

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