Man in daughter's sexual abuse trial paid witnesses to testify that his penis was deformed: Prosecution

A man was convicted in March last year for sexually abusing his daughter from the end of 2011 to April 2014, when the girl was aged between 11 and 13.

According to The Straits Times, the man, who cannot be named to protect the girl's identity, appealed against his sentence of 23½ years' jail and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane.

Prosecutors claim the man had paid two witnesses to testify at the appeal hearing that his penis was deformed, a condition that rendered him unable to have carried out the attacks on the girl.

Out of the two witnesses, Mr Muhammad Ridzwan Idris will testify in court today (Oct 3), while the other declined to be called into court to give evidence.

Mr Ridzwan and the man are casual acquaintances who used to play football together, said the man.

The man told the High Court on Tuesday that Mr Ridzwan can prove that his daughter "was not telling the truth".

He said he had bumped into Mr Ridzwan at by chance in Bussorah Street in February this year and he agreed to testify for him after hearing about the situation.

The court heard that Mr Ridzwan had seen the man's penis while the two were at a public urinal in 2013 and Mr Ridzwan had remembered it because of its unusual shape.

But Deputy Public Prosecutor April Phang said the man was making it all up "like the disingenuous storyteller" he is.

She pointed out that the man was charged in 2015, and the two years up until now has not put forth any witnesses to corroborate his story on his deformed penis. 

Yet in less than a month, he was able to find "two witnesses with the exact same testimony", noted Ms Phang in court.

Mr Ridzwan had apparently drawn the man's penis from memory as evidence but the drawing was "strikingly similar" to a photograph of the penis that was taken after the offences, she added.

Ms Phang told the court that the man had provided the photograph to copy because Mr Ridzwan had never seen his penis in 2013 or any time during the offences.

She also suggested that the man had provided some "financial motivation for such sympathetic friends" to testify on his behalf, which the man denied. 

The hearing continues today (Oct 3).

Read the full story at The Straits Times.