Ler Teck Siang ‘afraid’ of admitting to prostatic massages to narcotics officers
He says Section 377A prevented him from telling officers about prostatic massages
The doctor involved in the HIV registry data leak told a court yesterday that he was "afraid" of being penalised under Section 377A of the Penal Code for providing prostatic massages, and decided against telling narcotics officers about it.
The law criminalises sex between consenting adult men.
Ler Teck Siang, 38, is accused of injecting narcotics into abusers for a fee in a practice known as "slamming".
He had denied providing the drug injections earlier in the trial, claiming that he had instead given sports and prostatic massages to drug abuser Sim Eng Chee.
Sim, who is serving a sentence for drug consumption and possession, had testified that he hired Ler for "slamming" services before sex parties with other men.
On the sixth day of Ler's trial, he told a district court that he did not mention the prostatic massage services to narcotics officers as he was "not certain if it would constitute" an offence under Section 377A in the Penal Code.
He said he did not provide such services in the "capacity of a medical professional", adding that he was embarrassed that he did offer prostatic massages.
"It's a private and personal kind of service I was providing... not something I'd want to share with a narcotics officer," said Ler.
He is contesting one charge of injecting methamphetamine, also known as Ice, into Sim on Feb 26 last year, and another charge of possessing drug-related utensils a few days later on March 2.
Yesterday, Ler's former business partner - Dr Ng Tsorng Chinn, the director of Faith Medical Group - took the stand to testify that Ler was a "good man".
Ler, who is representing himself, asked Dr Ng to explain what the syringe Central Narcotics Bureau officers found on him is typically used for.
Dr Ng said it is meant for subcutaneous injections like when injecting insulin, adding that it is "too soft, too small, too short", to be used for intravenous injections. "Slamming" involves intravenous injections.
The trial will resume next month.
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