Key witness in sex-for-grades trial claims CPIB coercion

Key witness in sex-for-grades trial claims CPIB coercion
By Claire Huang | Posted: 11 January 2013 2236 hrs
     
SINGAPORE: The prosecution in the sex-for-grades corruption trial involving a law professor, turned against its key witness on the second day of the hearing by impeaching her credibility.

It argued on Friday that star witness Darinne Ko Wen Hui's testimony on Thursday had deviated from her first statement to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, taken in April last year.

Tey Tsun Hang, a former district judge, faces six counts of corruptly obtaining gratification in the form of gifts and sex from Ms Ko, between May and July 2010.

The gifts included tailor-made shirts, an iPod Touch and a Montblanc pen.

The prosecution said these were inducements to show favour in Tey's assessment of Ms Ko's academic performance.

In a dramatic twist to the closely-watched trial, Ms Ko said she was coerced into making parts of her first CPIB statement.

She said the CPIB recording officers were only willing to record some of what she told them.

The 23-year-old added that in relation to the gifts she showered on Tey, one CPIB recording officer "received specific orders" to record within the parameters of her agreement "with the (CPIB) boss".

These came minutes after the prosecution applied to impeach her credibility for parts of her testimony made on Thursday.

The swift move follows discrepancies in a few areas, including her amount of interaction with Tey after they broke up and the details of photos taken after they had sex.

Earlier in the day, the prosecution showed Ms Ko photographs of her and Tey, supposedly taken after they had sex.

When asked about some of the photos, Ms Ko said she could not remember when and where it took place. Apparently, this is inconsistent with her statement to the CPIB.

Ms Ko said on Thursday she gave the S$740 Montblanc pen to Tey as a belated birthday gift.

But prosecution pointed out that she failed to mention it in any of her CPIB statements.

To this, Ms Ko admitted she had "failed to convey to them (CPIB) at that point in time".

Ms Ko then said that she amended "only parts" of the first statement "which were coerced", in her subsequent statements.

She also said she stated clearly previously that the reasons for the gifts were due to her "feelings of affection" for Tey.

With impeachment, the judge will have to decide at the end of the trial, which parts of Ms Ko's evidence to take into consideration.

The trial started with Tey asking the prosecution for information on his former students' grades, including that of Ms Ko.

Some four hours were spent going through more than 30 applications, of which, six were granted and the rest were deemed irrelevant by Chief District Judge Tan Siong Thye, who denied some of his requests.

At one point in time, he told Tey off for wasting the court's time as some of the information have already been provided.

The trial continues.

- CNA/xq

- wong chee tat :)