• Tan Wee Tim, 69, is accused of touching a young girl’s private parts
• He and his wife testified that he and the girl shared a close relationship
• A prosecutor accused them of lying, quizzing them on several parts of their evidence

SINGAPORE — Taking the witness stand on Thursday (Nov 19) for the first time in an ongoing trial, a 69-year-old man accused of molestation said that he treated a young girl whom his wife was babysitting like his own child and never molested her.

The prosecution said instead that Tan Wee Tim and his wife were lying about the close relationship he had with the five-year-old girl.

Tan is contesting one charge of molesting the girl by touching her private parts with his hand on the afternoon of April 12, 2019. 

This allegedly took place in a flat at Jurong West where Tan lived with his wife and adult daughter.

The alleged victim and her parents testified earlier this week when the trial began in a district court. They cannot be named due to a court order to protect the child’s identity.

The girl’s parents had hired Tan’s wife to look after her in September 2018, up until the day of the purported incident.

That evening, the girl told her mother that Tan had touched her “many times”.

‘LIKE PART OF THE FAMILY’

Tan gave evidence on Thursday in Hokkien through an interpreter. He claimed that when he saw the girl revising her homework in his flat, he would ask her if she knew how to read certain words. 

Tan’s wife regularly picked her up from kindergarten on weekdays at 11.30am, taking care of her until about 7pm when her mother was done with work.

Tan said that he also asked the girl about mosquito bites on her legs.

When questioned by his lawyer Lee Wei Fan on their interactions, Tan said that the girl occasionally bid him goodbye and hugged him.

“I treated her as a child. She is like part of the family,” he added.

Taking her turn to cross-examine Tan, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Lim Ying Min accused him of fabricating his testimony in order to mislead the court.

The girl and her parents had testified earlier that she never hugged Tan and was not close to him.

Tan then claimed that the girl’s father saw her hugging Tan once when he picked her up. DPP Lim replied that this was the first time this had surfaced, adding that aside from saying “hello” or “goodbye”, there were no further interactions between them.

Tan disagreed.

DPP Lim also put it to him that he specifically took advantage of the times his wife was cooking in the kitchen to molest the girl in the living room.

Tan disagreed again.

At the hearing the day before, a psychiatrist’s medical report stated that the girl wanted to visit her nanny again after her parents made a police report, but then told her mother: “There is a monster there.”

DPP Lim told Tan: “I put it to you that you molested (the girl) as what she described. That’s why she called you a monster.”

“I disagree,” he responded.

As to whether the girl made up the allegation, he said that she did but he did not know why.

'I'M NOT PROTECTING HIM'

Tan’s wife, 61-year-old Chong Kim Koon, similarly testified in Mandarin that the girl gave him hugs sometimes and were so close that they seemed blood-related.

DPP Lim challenged her on several parts of her testimony, such as whether she had taken the girl to tuition classes that day.

Calling Madam Chong “evasive” at times, the prosecutor charged that the reason she claimed not to remember or know certain things was because she wanted to protect her husband.

“I’m not protecting him. I disagree,” Mdm Chong replied.

She is still babysitting children and is now looking after an eight-month-old boy, she said.

The trial continues next week, with Tan’s daughter taking the stand. 

If convicted of molesting a minor, Tan could be jailed up to five years or fined, or both. Offenders can receive caning but those aged 50 and above cannot be caned by law.