A man who was jailed for sexually abusing his daughter had colluded with a witness to produce a fake drawing of his supposedly deformed penis, the prosecution said on Tuesday of his attempt to appeal against his conviction.

The 43-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect his daughter’s identity, testified in the High Court on Tuesday in a trial to admit new evidence. The outcome of the trial will determine whether his appeal against his conviction can proceed.

As part of the trial, the man’s friend Muhammad Ridzwan Idris, will testify that he saw the man’s deformed penis in 2013 – during the period of the sexual offences. The man’s defence is that the size of his misshapen genitalia made it improbable for him to sexually penetrate his daughter.

The man was previously convicted of 10 charges involving sexual offences against his daughter at their residence between 2011 and 2014 when the girl was between 11 and 13 years old. The charges include committing an indecent act with a child, five counts of molesting her, and four counts of sexual assault by penetration.

He was sentenced to 23 and a half years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane in 2017 following a trial. However, the man decided to appeal his conviction and sought to adduce new evidence, in the form of his friend’s affidavit about the state of his penis following a botched penis enlargement procedure in 2009.

The man’s case was escalated in April this year to the Court of Appeal, where a panel of three judges sent it back to the trial judge to hear new evidence.

On Tuesday (2 October), the man testified that he had known Ridzuan since 2012. During the fasting month in 2013, the two sold Malay snacks at Singapore Expo. On one occasion then, the men were in the toilet at the same time, according to Ridzuan’s affidavit.

Ridzuan noticed the man’s unusual penis shape when they urinated side by side. He described the man’s genitals as a “round doorknob” and that it “did not look normal”. However, Ridzuan did not mention what he saw to the man at the time. As part of his affidavit, Ridzuan produced a sketch of the man’s penis from its front and from its side.

The two “hardly met” after 2013, according to the man, who described Ridzuan as a “casual acquaintance”.

The two did not keep in touch until a chance encounter on 3 February this year – six days before the man was supposed to file new evidence for his appeal.

At the time, another witness who had originally agreed to testify to the state of the man’s penis at the time of the offences had pulled out, causing the man to feel depressed. The witness, Mohamed Alwan, had changed his mind about testifying as his wife had threatened him with divorce, the man told the court.

During the “chance meeting” with Ridzuan along Bussorah Street, the man related to him about his problems regarding the case.

Ridzuan then informed the man that he saw the man’s crotch area back in 2013 when they urinated together at Singapore Expo. He agreed to testify on behalf of the man and later filed an affidavit through the man’s lawyer, Ramesh Tiwary, on 9 February.

However, the prosecution pointed out that it was too coincidental for the man to have found a new witness within a short time of Alwan backing out.

Instead, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) April Phang argued that the man had deliberately sought to find a witness who could falsely testify to the state of his genitals in a “last ditch attempt” to prove that his daughter and former wife were lying about the size of his penis.

“I put it to you that none of this happened naturally like you said. I put it to you that there is a pattern here of producing witnesses at the eleventh hour, always a few days before the deadline,” said DPP Phang.

Accusing the man of providing a photograph copy of his deformed penis for Ridzuan to copy, the DPP said, “You and Ridzuan had colluded to lie to this court and produce a fake drawing of your penis.”

She added that Ridzuan had provided “financial motivation” for both Ridzuan and Alwan to testify on his behalf, and that neither had ever seen his deformed penis.

The prosecution sought to argue that the man had only undergone the penis enlargement procedure, resulting in it becoming deformed after September 2015, following the sexual offences.

The 2013 incident in the toilet was “fictitious” and never happened, said the prosecution.

The trial will continue tomorrow with Ridzuan expected to take the stand.



