MEZIESBLOG

Music industry veteran Ken Lim Chih Chiang took the stand in his own defence on Monday (Jul 22) in his ongoing trial for making sexual comments to an aspiring singer-songwriter in 2012.

Lim, best known for his Hype Records label and for being a judge on Singapore Idol, called the woman’s allegations “blatant” lies, saying that what she claimed he did or said went against what a record executive would say or do to an artiste.

The 60-year-old Singaporean has vehemently denied all seven allegations against him by five women. He is set for five trials over sexual remarks he allegedly made between 1998 and 2013, as well as for an accusation of molesting a 25-year-old woman in his office at Henderson Road in November 2021.

The current trial centres around a single charge of insulting the modesty of a woman, then aged 26 in 2012, who claims Lim said to her: “Are you a virgin” and “What if I have sex with you right now” at a car park at Hype Records in July 2012.

The woman, whose identity is protected by gag order, is now based overseas and flew to Singapore to testify against Lim.

She had decided to report him to the police after reading news reports on Lim being first charged in court last year.

Lim’s lawyers, led by Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng from WongPartnership, opened the defence’s case on Monday with a brief statement.

Mr Tan cast doubt on the woman’s claim to have been “traumatised” by Lim’s remarks, pointing to the lack of corroboration by her then-boyfriend and her sister, who also testified.

Instead, Mr Tan painted a picture of the woman as being hurt by Lim’s criticism of her as not having what it takes to be a singer-songwriter, a hurt that remained up till 2016 when she blogged about it.

He also called her a “copycat” who made a “contrived” complaint after reading the news report about Lim’s charging, with allegations that are similar to what was written in the report.

LIM TAKES STAND

Lim opened by saying he had recovered from a fever over the weekend and asked District Judge Wong Peck to excuse him if he coughed from time to time.

Asked by his counsel to tell the court about himself and his family, Lim said: “I met my wife about 40 years ago and we have been contentedly married for about three decades. We have two lovely kids. We are a genuinely close-knit family.”

Lim’s wife, Ms Judy Hsu, was in court to support him.

Lim described his music career in detail, from how he began producing and engineering albums to how he started his own label and wrote or produced national songs for the country.

He set up Hype Records in 1992 at the age of 28, which he said was known to have “more hits than misses”, with “most musicians and production people” crossing paths somehow with the company in the past 30 years.

“Unfortunately, due to these frivolous charges, I’m unable to contribute to this industry anymore,” said Lim, adding that he has retrenched most of his staff, which “really impacted the whole industry to some extent”.

Asked about how he became a judge on Singapore Idol, Lim said he was already known to be someone who did not mince his words in the studio before Pop Idol was popular and “even way before Simon Cowell was ever a household name”.

“So when Mediacorp brought the franchise from Fremantle to do Singapore Idol they needed someone who had the expertise and credibility to take on the role of Simon Cowell, that’s when they approached me,” said Lim.

However, he said the show “unfortunately put me in the public eye” and he was not very comfortable with that.

“On the show I was basically just doing my thing, being honest, making sure whatever I say will help the participants, and I don’t see a need for me to hold back,” said Lim.

He said he was honest because he felt it was important for him to tell someone if they did not have what it takes.

“And if they are still insistent to have that dream, it’s important to have a reality check,” said Lim. “I mean, you shouldn’t waste people’s time when you know that they don’t have what it takes.”

THE MEETINGS

Lim explained that he got to know the woman through “a dear friend”, known in court as PW9, who asked him to meet her as a favour.

Lim said he was close friends and lunch partners with PW9 and another man. 

PW9 told Lim that the woman used to go to school with his children and their families were close. He said she quit her job to be in the music industry.

According to Lim, PW9 said the woman’s parents were concerned that she was about to leave “a very secured job” for something that was “very unpredictable” and hoped Lim could “have a word with her” to see if he could help her out.

Lim said he was “a little bit hesitant because I get all these requests all the time” but eventually agreed when their other lunch buddy asked him to do PW9 a favour.

The woman went to the Hype Records office to meet Lim for the first time on Jul 19, 2012.

“The first meeting was pretty much a getting-to-know-you kind of meeting, pretty standard. She asked me a lot of questions, she was very chatty, like most other people that I meet,” said Lim.

He said he told the woman that her certification from a top UK university was “quite a big deal as far as I’m concerned” and “especially with such good results”.

He said it was very likely for her to have a “secured future” along that path compared with being successful in the music industry.

“I was indirectly telling her to, you know, asking her why do you want to do something like that, but she said that was what she’s happy doing,” said Lim.

“She shared with me the artistes that inspire her, people like Taylor Swift, Adele and some other names I can’t recall, but she specifically identified Sara McLachlan, Sara Bareilles and Corrinne May,” said Lim.

“The reason I remember is I myself like them as well. And then I asked her what songs do you like from these artistes and she identified Angel, Gravity, which are also two songs that I like.”

Lim said he asked the woman what she knew about the meaning of the songs, and she said they were about angels and love.

Lim said he then told the woman what the songs really were about – how McLachlan was inspired to write about a keyboard player who died of a drug overdose, and how Gravity is about somebody who is unable to leave a relationship.

He explained that such talk was “pretty standard” in a music discussion.