Father of doctor accused of brutally bashing girlfriend tells court he had ‘no choice’ but to call police

SINGAPORE — The father of a doctor who is on trial for brutally bashing his then-girlfriend after she refused him sex in 2017 took the stand on Wednesday (Nov 6), telling the court that he had no choice but to call the police on the night of the alleged assault.

Mr Teo Kim Poh, 64, recalled what he said to his 35-year-old son, Clarence Teo Shun Jie, as policemen escorted him out of their home in Redhill.

“I told him that I am sorry. I felt bad that I called the police, but it left me no choice knowing that Rachel is hurt,” the father said when giving evidence in his son’s trial.

Rachel refers to the victim, Ms Rachel Lim En Hui, 27. A photo of Ms Lim’s bashed-up face has drawn public outrage over the violence inflicted upon her. She suffered multiple facial fractures requiring her to be warded in hospital for 21 days.

In the wee hours of Aug 27, 2017, Teo — who is contesting one charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt and one charge of wrongful confinement — allegedly flew into a rage and assaulted her.

Court documents stated that when she tried to leave his bedroom to escape from him, he pursued her, forced her back into the room and locked the door. He was then said to have punched Ms Lim’s face repeatedly with “great force”, hitting her head against the wall.

Mr Teo Kim Poh testified on Wednesday that he was woken thrice that night by sounds coming from his son’s bedroom.

He was first woken by “a soft crying sound” but went back to sleep.

A slightly louder crying sound woke up him next.

The third time, he was woken by a “loud commotion” that prompted him to “rush out” to attend to whatever was going on.

He asked his son to open the door by knocking loudly, but the door was not opened although the commotion had suddenly died down.

“I kept knocking on the door. None of them responded,” he said.

The next thing he knew, he heard a “big commotion” that lasted one to two minutes. When this stopped, “everything was quiet, I could only hear Rachel crying”, he said.

He continued knocking to get someone to open the door, but there was still no response.

VICTIM SAID SHE WAS 'NOT OKAY'

So after making another three to four “hard knocks”, the father called out to Ms Lim, and asked if she was okay. She responded by saying she was not.

That’s when he decided to call the police. It was 4.12am.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Amanda Sum asked him if it was difficult to report his own son. He replied: “In a way. (But) after I got the response from Rachel that she was not okay (and) could be hurt, I had no choice.”

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After police officers arrived and their demands to open the door went unanswered, they broke it down. Mr Teo Kim Poh said that he was “very surprised” to see his son laying “flat out” on the bed without a shirt, not moving at all when an officer handcuffed him.

He did not see the state of Ms Lim at all that day as officers had told him to go to the kitchen to “avoid her”, he said.

The father also told the court that he had never known his son to be violent when he was drunk, adding that he “will only get very drunk” when he quarrels or breaks up with his girlfriend.

On Tuesday, the accused gave evidence to the effect that he did not recall the alleged assault. He said that he suffered from severe alcoholism which caused blackouts when he was capable of doing “crazy” things.

The trial will resume in January next year when his psychiatrist is expected to take the stand.

Teo remains out on S$15,000 bail.