Corrinne May calls victim statements in Ken Lim trial ‘preposterous’
Music producer Ken Lim’s defence lawyers called upon their final two witnesses on Sept 4, in the ongoing trial against him allegedly making sexual statements to a then 26-year-old woman.
Singer-songwriter Corrinne May and former Nominated Member of Parliament Gerard Ee both appeared in the State Courts to testify on day 13 of the trial.
The trial revolves around an allegation that Lim, 60, had insulted the modesty of the woman in 2012.
The former Singapore Idol judge’s legal team, led by Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng, showed Ms May the woman’s testimony in which she said she told Lim she loved and looked up to Corrinne May.
The pair first met at the Hype Records office in Henderson Road on July 19, 2012. Lim was the company’s executive director at the time.
They met again six days later. The woman claims that it was at this second meeting where he asked if she was a virgin, and posed the question: “What if I have sex with you right now?” at his office.
In her testimony, the woman alleged that Lim had said Ms May was not a successful musician and that she was only a kindergarten teacher, adding that only churchgoers listened to her music.
When asked by the defence what she thought of the statements, Ms May said: “I think it’s preposterous. Ken would not say something like that. Ken is a businessman and musician, so he would have known about all the music successes I’ve had over the years… He wouldn’t say this.”
Ms May said she first met Lim in 1992, just as she was starting her first year at the National University of Singapore. She had reached out to him by sending demo tapes of her music, as she was interested in becoming a musician.
The pair went on to become friends, with Ms May even performing at Lim’s wedding in 1994.
On the witness stand on Sept 4, she rejected the notion that Lim would have said she was an unsuccessful musician and kindergarten teacher, citing her career achievements around the time of the alleged conversation between Lim and the woman.
Said Ms May: “Around the same time this alleged conversation took place, Gardens by the Bay was just opening in 2012 and I was the first local artist to open (for them).”
And just prior to that, she had two sold-out concerts and was invited to compose the 2010 National Day song, Ms May added.
Mr Gerard Ee, a social service veteran, said he first became acquainted with Lim some 30 years ago when Lim sought him out for his services, but the pair only grew closer in 2001.
Mr Ee was working at accounting firm Ernst & Young at the time.
Mr Ee said the two of them would meet up from time to time. He would pick Lim up for dinner, and “we enjoyed each other’s company and (had) discussions which were always very broad-based.”
He added that once, when he was chairman of the then-National Volunteer Centre, he had pressured Lim to meet a deadline for a volunteer song, which forced Lim to cancel a trip.
Mr Ee said the flight turned out to be the “fateful” SQ006 flight, which had crashed in 2000. The Los Angeles-bound plane had taken off from the wrong runway in Taiwan and crashed into construction equipment, killing 83 of 179 passengers and crew.
He added that he has been Lim’s bailor since the first charges emerged in March 2023. “I think that’s what close friends should do for each other.”
Mr Ee further testified that he was the one who persuaded Lim to do him a favour to meet the woman, as she was the daughter of Mr Ee’s close friend.
Lim, Mr Ee and his close friend met up for lunch in September 2023, after Lim informed them that he had been charged.
Mr Ee said: “If (my close friend) had heard a complaint, he would have told me and the two of us would have confronted Mr Ken Lim to find out what happened,” adding that he would have felt very uncomfortable continuing his meetings with Lim if the complaints were true.
The trial continues.
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