Athletics coach’s phone records show he did not ‘keep calling’ former trainee

SINGAPORE — Accused of pestering his former sprint trainee with multiple phone calls, veteran track-and-field coach Loh Siang Piow on Tuesday (Dec 11) said his mobile phone records show that her claim could not be further from the truth.

The 74-year-old’s call records showed that he had phoned the then-18-year-old trainee once a month at most, in the 10 months between July 7, 2013 and May 6, 2014. There were six months in which he had made no phone calls to her.

During that period, the teenager — who is accusing him of molesting her — made up to three calls to Loh in a month, records showed.

Loh is fighting two charges of using criminal force on the teenager while massaging the back of her thighs to ease muscle cramps at Tampines Stadium on two Sundays between January and March 17, 2013. 

The former vice-president (competitions organising) of Singapore Athletics allegedly rubbed her private parts over her clothing during the massages on a bench along a corridor on the first occasion, and on a massage bed inside an equipment room in the second instance.

The trainee had testified that she did not agree that she called Loh — who is better known in the sports fraternity as Loh Chan Pew — voluntarily on Nov 6, 2013.

Loh on Monday rubbished her molestation claim and called it “nonsense”. On Tuesday, he pointed out that Nov 6 was his birthday and that she had called him for about two minutes to wish him a happy birthday. “(Her claim) is totally nonsense again,” he added.

The last call he made to her prior to that was on Oct 27, 2013, when he spoke with her over the phone for about four minutes to get her to prepare for an inter-varsity meet, which would be held at Singapore Polytechnic in January 2014.

She eventually participated in the meet, representing her university for the first time that year, but did not perform well, Loh said.

The next time he called her was on Jan 24, 2014. He said he wanted to discuss her dismal performance in two track-and-field events. “(In both events, she) did very badly if I (remember) right,” he told the court. That was the only phone call he made to her that month.

The next phone call Loh made to her was on Valentine’s Day in 2014 to inform her that an athlete who had trained with her had died in an accident. The call lasted 102 seconds.

COMPLAINANT ‘FRIENDLY’ FOR OVER 3 YEARS BEFORE INVOLVING POLICE

As his accuser — who cannot be named to protect her identity — had stopped training with Loh completely in August 2013, the court also heard that he did not see her at all in 2014 except when he bumped into her during the January inter-varsity meet.

Loh was the coach of some athletes from Nanyang Technological University.

That was around the time the complainant introduced her boyfriend to Loh.

The next time they met was at a Chinese New Year gathering in 2015 at the house of a male athlete. He was invited by the athlete’s father, while the male athlete had invited the complainant.

Loh said he sensed no animosity from the woman or her friends at the gathering. Asked if the complainant was friendly to him that day, he said: “Oh, yes. All my athletes are friendly to me.”

So, he was shocked to hear on July 31, 2016 that someone had lodged a complaint against him with the police, he said.

Loh was at Choa Chu Kang Stadium when he received the news from a police officer over the phone.

The trial, into its 18th day, continues on Tuesday afternoon. 

Loh is a former national sprinter who has groomed many national athletes as a coach, and was an ex-deputy superintendent of prisons. If convicted, he may face up to two years in jail, and/or a fine. He cannot be caned as he is above 50 years old.