SINGAPORE: A 37-year-old man was convicted on Tuesday (Feb 10) of raping an inebriated work acquaintance after a dinner celebrating their shared birthday.
The judge “entirely” rejected Jasper Lee Loong Kuan’s defence that the woman had consented, finding that she was too drunk to give consent and in any event did not consent.
Instead, Lee was “well aware” that the woman was drunk and in no condition to consent to sexual intercourse, the judge found.
She also found that Lee was a “disingenuous and shifty witness prone to invention”, trying to avoid answering questions about whether the victim was able to walk stably or in a straight line until he was confronted with footage clearly showing her stumbling.
He also repeatedly tried to backtrack on evidence given in cross-examination, said the judge.
Lee had claimed trial to one charge of raping a woman on the night of Sep 15, 2021.
The victim’s name, age and other identifying information cannot be published due to a gag order protecting her identity.
The pair had met for dinner at a restaurant in VivoCity where they had red wine.
The prosecution’s case was that the woman told Lee she wanted to go home and he offered to take her.
He raped her in her bedroom.
JUDGE’S FINDINGS
In convicting Lee, Justice Mavis Chionh noted that the woman’s estimated blood alcohol concentration that night would have been close to 200mg per 100ml.
Medical literature has established that this level comes with expected behaviour such as stupor, sleepiness, lack of coordination, confusion, incoherent thought and vomiting.
Justice Chionh found that the objective evidence of the woman’s behaviour that night shows her exhibiting “a good number” of these expected behaviours.
Closed-circuit television footage (CCTV) and an audio recording showed a progressive loss of inhibition in the course of dinner, as well as signs of disorientation after leaving the restaurant.
The woman had vomited three times and CCTV footage showed her stumbling and staggering across a void deck to the lift lobby.
Experts agreed that she appeared to have experienced a “fragmentary alcoholic memory blackout”.
The last thing she remembered was being supported by Lee back to the bedroom after vomiting, followed by something pushing against her with force.
At this juncture, the woman said she was drifting in and out of consciousness and “totally” did not know what was going on.
After the rape, the woman was observed by witnesses to be in a state of severe emotional distress and hysteria.
Justice Chionh noted that defence lawyers Mr Gregory Fong and Mr Johnathan Lee had made “misconceived” “attacks” that were “devoid of merit”, on Institute of Mental Health expert Charles Mak Chia Meng’s evidence on an individual’s mental capacity to consent.
“Equally misconceived and devoid of merit is the defence’s attempt to challenge Dr Mak’s evidence that the threshold to be met for mental capacity for consent to sexual intercourse would be higher than that required for a simple decision like taking a drink of water,” said Justice Chionh.
She said it was clear from the case of Pram Nair, a landmark ruling, that capacity to consent requires the capacity to make decisions or choices, and this includes being able to understand the nature and consequences of giving consent.
“Following from this, the proposition that capacity to consent to sexual intercourse will generally require a higher level of cognitive function – compared to a simple act like taking a drink of water – is both logical and commonsensical,” said Justice Chionh.
“Not only is the nature of sexual intercourse far more complex than a simple act such as drinking water, the potential consequences of sexual intercourse – which include pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases – are also far more complex and far more serious in their implications for the individual concerned.”
She found that the victim was an honest witness whose account of events was internally consistent and externally consistent with corroborative evidence.
Lee will be sentenced at a later date.
For rape, he may be jailed for up to 20 years, fined, or caned.