Ken Lim’s trial: Former Singapore Idol judge says he would have been sleepless ‘past 20 years’ if claims of sexual insults were true

SINGAPORE — Testifying in court on Monday (July 22), former Singapore Idol judge Ken Lim Chih Chiang called the allegations levelled against him by one of five women “more absurd than believable”.
The woman, a singer-songwriter, had accused Lim of asking her “are you a virgin” and “what if I have sex with you right now” at a car park on the night of July 25 in 2012.
Refuting these allegations of using sexually insulting words, Lim said that these thoughts would not have crossed his mind because such a scandal would be “bad for business”.
He also said that he was an “established music executive” who would not risk leaving the fate of his reputation in the hands of the woman who was 26 or 27 years old at the time and “who cannot differentiate between having a future and having none”.
The music industry veteran who founded Singapore record label Hype Records in 1992 added that he had agreed to meet the woman that day as a favour to his “dear friend”, who was a close family friend of her parents. If he had said anything indecent, word could have possibly gotten back to his good friend.
In March last year, Lim was first charged with molesting a 25-year-old woman in his office on Nov 23, 2021. 
After that, four other women — including the singer-songwriter — stepped forward to file police reports over sexual remarks that Lim allegedly made to them between 1998 and 2013. The five women cannot be named due to a gag order protecting their identities.
Lim battles a total of seven charges, which he is contesting in five separate trials.
He took the stand on Monday as the first of three witnesses called upon by the defence, which is led by Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng from law firm Wong Partnership.
The other two witnesses, Singaporean singer-songwriter Corrinne May and former Nominated Member of Parliament Gerard Ee, will take the stand in mid-August.
The prosecution had previously called a total of nine witnesses, including the woman’s sister, husband and father. It closed its case on July 15, after all its witnesses had been cross-examined.
Delivering his opening statement on Monday in defence of Lim, Mr Tan noted that the singer-songwriter had filed a police report on June 28 last year, after reading a report by The Straits Times about the allegations levelled against Lim.
She made the police report 11 years after the incident allegedly occurred and Mr Tan said that the nine witnesses called upon by the prosecution could not recall the details or context of their conversations with the woman after the incident.
Referring to records during that period presented as evidence before the court, Mr Tan also said that the woman’s conduct after meeting Lim at the car park was “totally at odds” with someone who had allegedly suffered a traumatic experience.
The defence lawyer called the woman a “copycat” and “liar”, whose complaint of Lim’s indecent remarks was “contrived” and “uncannily similar” to those in the newspaper report that had led her to file the police report.
Drawing parallels between the allegations in the newspaper report and what the singer-songwriter said about Lim, Mr Tan added that she had “effectively mirrored” what she had read in the newspaper report and twisted it.
Instead, Mr Tan put forth that the woman — a “high achiever” and “straight ‘A’ student” who graduated from a top university in the United Kingdom — was simply upset at Lim’s criticisms that she did not have what it took to succeed as an artiste.
Lim was later called to take the stand, where he was questioned by Mr Tan about his music career, details of the meeting with the woman, as well as other exchanges and interactions between the pair.
Calling the accusations “blatant lies”, Lim said that these were “even more bizarre” in light of the close relationship between her parents and his good friend who had first introduced the woman to Lim.
Lim also said that if the charges were true, he would not have been able to sleep “the past 20 years” knowing that she could tell his friend anytime what he had said to her.
“If you apply logic, it sounds more absurd than believable.”
As for his remark about whether she was a virgin, he said that the singer-songwriter had travelled around Europe with her boyfriend then (now her husband), and that she had identified the boyfriend as the one she would marry, so “to think she was not (already) intimate at that age is quite difficult to believe”.
He also refuted the woman’s earlier claims of how he had purportedly told her that innocent music could not sell, and that he had allegedly cited Ms May as an example, saying that she was “not successful” and was “just a kindergarten teacher”.
Lim told the court that “innocent music sells”, especially in the context of Asia’s culture. He added that he had personally written many “very innocent” songs that were very successful and therefore, he would not have made such a statement.
Referring to Ms May, Lim said that he would never speak ill of someone whom he had mentored for many years and who was a very established artiste.
Lim added that he had written a testimonial letter for Ms May, when she decided to pursue music at the Berklee College of Music in the United States after completing her undergraduate studies in Singapore.
If found guilty of insulting the modesty of a woman, Lim could be jailed for up to a year or fined, or both.