DJ Tenashar acquitted of forgery charge after being assessed to be suffering from delusional disorder

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
July 10, 2023

Club DJ Tenashar, 37, who filed a forged document purportedly made by Attorney-General (AG) Lucien Wong in April 2022, was acquitted of the forgery charge on Monday as she was of unsound mind at the time.

The former FHM Singapore and Playboy Thailand cover girl, whose full name is Debbie Valerie Tenashar Long, had been assessed by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) to be suffering from an unspecified type of delusional disorder.

Deputy Public Prosector Sivanathan Jheevanesh told District Judge John Ng: “She was actively labouring under the false belief of being an operative for the Internal Security Department (ISD) in her generation and submission of the fraudulent document.

“The accused was of unsound mind around the time of the offence. She was incapable of understanding the nature and wrongfulness of her act.”

On Monday, Judge Ng ordered for Long to be remanded at IMH pending the minister’s order. A psychiatrist will prepare a report on her case within a month.

Court documents stated that Long had filed an affidavit with the State Courts on April 8, 2022, and swore to the truth of its contents.

Attached to the affidavit was a letter dated April 5, 2022, purportedly from Attorney-General Wong to New Phoenix Park in Irrawaddy Road, near Balestier Road. Government agencies such as ISD are located there.

DPP Sivanathan said the letter was captioned: “Long Debbie Valerie Tenashar (Plaintiff) v Lim Fung Suan (Defendant) Attorney-General’s consent to institute proceedings for contempt of court.”

The DPP did not disclose details about affidavit and the purported defendant. However, he said the letter purportedly contained Attorney-General Wong’s signature, and stated: “My consent is given”.

But DPP Sivanathan said that Attorney-General Wong had not written nor signed the letter, adding: “The A-G had never given his consent for proceedings for contempt of court to be instituted (in the case)... The signature on the letter was not that of A-G Wong. The letter was a forged document.”

Long was arrested on Sept 6, 2022, and charged in court the following day.

She was remanded for observation at IMH until Sept 23, 2022. Soon after, she was remanded at the Central Police Division for further investigation until Sept 30, 2022.

She has remained in remand at Changi Prison Complex since then.

This was not her first brush with the law. In 2021, she was sentenced to 18 months’ jail over several drug-related offences and other charges.

She was also sentenced to 18 months’ jail in 2019 for offences such as drug consumption.

In the 2019 case, Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers first arrested Long for drug-related offences at the arrival hall of Changi Airport Terminal 1 at around 10.20pm on Oct 28, 2015, after she returned from a two-week trip to Amsterdam.

Officers took her to a CNB office at Bedok Police Divisional Headquarters, where her urine samples were found to contain traces of benzoylecgonine, a major metabolite of cocaine, and psilocin, a substance found in most psychedelic mushrooms. 

Officers searched her luggage and found two containers labelled “Psilocybe Atlantis Forbidden Fruit”. They held about 42g of a substance that was found to contain psilocin.

Investigations revealed that Long had bought the drug in Amsterdam and intended to consume it. She was taken to the Police Cantonment Complex for further investigations before she was released on bail.

But she left Singapore on Nov 15, 2015, despite knowing that she had to report back to the CNB. She returned in May 2018 after her passport expired and was arrested upon arrival. She was then sentenced to 18 months’ jail on March 26, 2019.