Anaesthetist charged with molesting woman at Mount Elizabeth Hospital four times in one evening

SINGAPORE — A 51-year-old anaesthetist working at Mount Elizabeth Hospital was hauled to a district court on Friday (Feb 7) and charged with four counts of allegedly molesting a 32-year-old woman.

Yeo Sow Nam is accused of doing the following in the evening of Oct 9, 2017:

• Wrapping his hand around the alleged victim’s shoulder while standing on her right, pulling her towards him, and kissing the side of her head on two occasions

• Hugging her and “quickly gripping” her breasts over her arms from behind her

• Squeezing her waist over her clothes with his hand

The woman cannot be named due to a court order to protect her identity. 

Yeo’s lawyer told District Judge Adam Nakhoda that he has “firm instructions” to claim trial to the charges and that he has a “robust defence” to the accusations.

The lawyer added that Yeo needs to travel overseas on an ad-hoc basis to attend to patients, and asked if he could be allowed to hold on to his passport. “We can inform the investigation officer or the Attorney-General’s Chambers before each trip,” the lawyer said.

District Judge Nakhoda allowed Yeo to travel to Malaysia for work-related reasons on four separate days in the coming week, and ordered him to hand over his passport to the authorities within a day of his return.

He reminded Yeo not to contact the alleged victim.

Yeo, who was the director of a pain management clinic — The Pain Specialist — at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, will return to court for a pre-trial conference on Feb 24.

Based on his online profile on the hospital’s website, he is also the chairman of the pain management section at the College of Anesthesiology in the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, as well as the current president of the World Institute of Pain for Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

The profile stated that he was the first Singaporean physician to obtain accreditation in the specialty of pain management.

In response to a query from TODAY, Dr Noel Yeo, chief executive officer of Mount Elizabeth Hospital, said: “We are unable to provide further comment on this as the matter is currently before the courts.”

In an update on March 4, 2021, after the woman gave testimony behind closed doors, Yeo’s lawyer said that she was neither a patient of Yeo's, nor was she under anaesthesia.