Former trainee’s molestation claims are ‘nonsense’, says 74-year-old athletics coach

SINGAPORE — Rubbishing his accuser’s claims in court on Monday (Dec 10), veteran track-and-field coach Loh Siang Piow said that his former trainee’s molestation claim was “absolutely nonsense”, pointing out that the then-18-year-old had also “freely accused” Singapore film director Jack Neo.

Testifying in court on the 17th day of his trial, the 74-year-old also denied conducting any one-on-one training sessions with the then-junior college student — who cannot be named due to a gag order — stressing that he is “very particular” about how such sessions are carried out.

His account contradicted the testimony given in January by the alleged victim’s father, who said he had accompanied his daughter to a training session at Tampines Stadium where he saw only his daughter and the coach. This was after she had allegedly been molested.

The teenager, who began as a private trainee with Loh in December 2012 after a referral from her school teacher, had alleged that Loh gave her individual training sessions.

Under examination on Monday by his lawyer Lew Chen Chen, Loh — who is better known as Loh Chan Pew — grew agitated as he called his former trainee’s claims “nonsense”.

“This is absolutely nonsense. I never had any one-to-one training. This is just an accusation,” he said.

Loh alleged that the trainee had also “freely accused Jack Neo”, a claim he repeated a few times before Ms Lew got him to calm down. He did not elaborate on what accusations she had made in relation to Neo, whose extramarital affairs with a number of women came to light in 2010.

Loh faces two charges of using criminal force on the teenager while massaging the back of her thighs to ease muscle cramps on two Sundays between January and March 17, 2013. He was alleged to have rubbed her private parts over her clothing during the massages. 

The first incident was alleged to take taken place on a bench along a corridor, while the second reportedly occurred on a massage bed inside an equipment room.

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

SHE TURNED UP IN A RED DRESS

Loh told the court that the alleged victim had stopped “active training” with him in May 2013, but she would go to the track “off and on” before stopping completely after August that year.

Sometime in May 2013, she had turned up at the Bishan Stadium in a red dress to consult him on what course she should pursue in university, he said.

Loh, who previously called his former trainee an “attention seeker”, said that she followed him around the track as he was conducting his training with other athletes. He later sent her away, telling her that he was in no position to advise her on which course to pursue as he did not know them well.

In his first testimony in court in July, Loh had told the court that it was the girl who had asked for a “rubdown” of her hamstrings. He had massaged her “only one or two times”, he said.

On Monday, Loh said that his second massage in February at the grandstand of a junior college was “just a very normal rubdown”. It was done in the presence of his other private trainees, school athletes, as well as students from other co-curricular activities who were training in the area that evening.

Ms Lew’s examination of Loh continues on Tuesday.