SINGAPORE: A traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner on trial for molesting a female customer called another patient to testify in his defence on Wednesday (Feb 10), with the witness saying the accused had never asked her to use a sex act as treatment.
Lim Ah Bah, 74, is contesting two charges each of molesting a 42-year-old woman and insulting her modesty in 2018. He allegedly performed two sexual acts on the woman on Oct 1, 2018, during a treatment session in a TCM clinic.
AdvertisementAdvertisementHe also purportedly asked her to apply lubricant gel on herself and suggested that her boyfriend perform a sex act on her for "better blood circulation".
Lim called another patient - Madam Lim Geok Heong - to the stand on Wednesday to testify for the defence.
The victim claimed Lim had asked her to apply musk powder on her body parts and to perform a sex act on these parts. She said Lim told her on the phone he made the same recommendation to other patients.
Earlier in the trial, Lim said he recommended this method to others including Mdm Lim, then denied it.
AdvertisementAdvertisementWhen questioned by Deputy Public Prosecutor Claire Poh on Wednesday, Mdm Lim said she was not told to put musk powder on herself and to have someone perform a sex act on her.
[h=3]READ: TCM practitioner on trial for performing sex act on patient claims she asked him to do it[/h]"I could also do it myself, use my hand," Mdm Lim said.
"But you can't suck your own (body part) right?" countered Ms Poh. "Did he ask you to get someone to (do it)?"
Advertisement"No," said Mdm Lim, adding that she would have been shocked if he had.
She told the court that she met the accused in 2010 when she consulted him for a foot problem. Thereafter she would visit him for treatment and he would massage her feet.
Mdm Lim, who appeared to be in her 60s, said that the accused visited her home about five times to treat her.
The prosecutor questioned her repeatedly about when she last saw Lim in a doctor-patient context. Earlier, when questioned by defence lawyer Tan Hee Joek, Mdm Lim had said she was still seeing him, but was unsure if he was still working.
She said the last time she met him, however, was in October last year, when she went to a shop he had opened in the Holland Village area. She consulted with another doctor on this visit.
[h=3]READ: TCM clinic owner testifies against ex-employee, says she has never heard of treating clients with sex acts[/h]Ms Poh told Mdm Lim what she said was at odds with what the accused had repeatedly said - that he had been out of a job for two years.
"So you confirm that he was working at a clinic?" asked Ms Poh.
"He came to my house," answered Mdm Lim.
"But you said you met him at a clinic in Holland. Then suddenly he's at your house," said Ms Poh.
Mdm Lim later added that she was the one who contacted the accused to testify in the trial, after reading about the case in the news.
She said that the accused is "a very good doctor" who will "tell you about your illness".
The defence closed its case on Wednesday and both sides will return to court for trial submissions in late April.
If convicted of molesting the woman, Lim can be jailed for up to two years and fined per charge. He cannot be caned as he is older than 50.
If found guilty of insulting a woman's modesty, he can be jailed for up to a year, fined or both per charge.
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