Teen accuses athletics coach of molest, dad tells her to forgive coach and ‘move on’

SINGAPORE — After keeping the incidents to herself for about three years, a former track-and-field athlete finally confided in her parents that her coach allegedly molested her on several occasions.

Their response to her: There would be inconvenience should she make a police report, and if it was a “one-off” incident, she should just “move on”.

Taking the stand on Monday (Jan 22) at the start of a five-day trial involving veteran athletics coach Loh Siang Piow, 73, who is accused of molesting two teenage girls, the mother said: “I told her all the consequences. The police will be calling you up every now and then… You will have to miss lessons, skip work at times, but she was all ready for it.”

Her father told the court that he was also “reluctant” at first for his daughter to take further action against Loh and told her to “forgive” the “very good” coach.

“If it is one-off, then there is no point. But she explained (to me) that the massage resulted in an orgasm,” he said.

Noting that this was not something a daughter would discuss with a father, he finally believed her and supported her decision.

Looking back, he felt a “sense of regret” and was disappointed that he did not do more for his daughter, who is the oldest of four children.

Loh, better known as Loh Chan Pew, is accused of using criminal force on the teenager, then 18, while massaging the back of her thighs to ease muscle cramps on two Sundays between January and March 17, 2013.

Loh was himself a national sprinter and he has groomed many national athletes as a coach. He also used to be the former deputy superintendent of prisons. In August 2016, during a police probe into the case, he took a leave of absence as Singapore Athletics’s vice-president (competitions organising).

Court documents showed that Loh allegedly committed the acts below the spectators’ seating area of Tampines Stadium. In the first instance, it was along a corridor, and in the second, on a massage bed inside an equipment room.

He faced three more charges involving another 16-year-old athlete, but those were stood down for the trial.

Testifying on Monday, the victim’s mother recounted that it was close to midnight when her daughter told her that she wanted to make a police report, and that she “felt it would be good” to do so to prevent more athletes from getting molested that way.

“I think she has kept this very unhappy incident all this while, not being able to speak up,” the mother said, adding that the daughter gathered the courage to talk about it after hearing from a 16-year-old athlete who had a similar experience.

The mother also told the court that her daughter had asked her father to accompany her to Tampines Stadium for training after she was molested, but she did not mention the incident to them at the time.

The victim’s father remembered accompanying his daughter to one training session, which lasted for just half an hour because of the rain. That day, he observed that nobody else was at the stadium apart from the coach, his daughter and him.

His daughter took up training with Loh because she wanted to be a national athlete, and was trying to see if she could make the mark and represent Singapore. She did this after completing her A Levels and was waiting to further her studies at a university.

The trial continues on Tuesday, with the victim taking the stand.

If convicted of using criminal force with the intention to outrage the modesty of another, Loh — who is represented by lawyers Lew Chen Chen and Victor Lee from Chambers Law LLP — may face up to two years’ jail, and/or fined. He cannot be caned as he is above 50 years old.