NotMyPresident
03-05-2018, 03:25 PM
Selina Lum
Law Correspondent
A defence lawyer who went on a "demeaning" line of questioning of a molestation victim, including staring at her breasts, was suspended for the maximum of five years yesterday for professional misconduct.
The Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body for the legal profession, had harsh words for Mr Edmund Wong Sin Yee's "disgraceful" conduct and his "irrelevant and wholly impermissible" line of questioning, which Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon noted was intended to humiliate the victim.
Mr Wong, who was not present in court, maintains he had not done anything wrong, which the court said weighed against him. "It is extremely difficult to reform one who does not appreciate the error of his ways," said the Chief Justice.
Mr Wong, who runs his own firm S Y Wong Law Chambers, had defended a 24-year-old student from China who was accused of brushing his forearm against the breast of a 22-year-old woman on an MRT train in July 2014.
While he was cross-examining the victim at the trial in 2015, Mr Wong repeatedly asked if she thought she was attractive. He also made her stand up, whereupon he scrutinised her chest.
To the victim's objections, Mr Wong retorted he would be asking even more insulting questions.
When the district judge intervened, Mr Wong sought to justify his line of questioning, saying he was trying to establish if his client had been tempted to molest her.
Xu Jiadong was found guilty and jailed for five months.
The district judge dedicated six pages of his grounds of decision to Mr Wong's "unacceptable" cross-examination. The Attorney-General's Chambers lodged a complaint with the Law Society.
A disciplinary tribunal found that Mr Wong had breached professional conduct rules and referred his case to the court.
Yesterday, his lawyer, Mr Eugene Thuraisingam, said that Mr Wong's focus on attractiveness was aimed at advancing the case that the woman was so plain the accused had not even noticed her.
more at : https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/lawyer-suspended-for-humiliating-molestation-victim
Law Correspondent
A defence lawyer who went on a "demeaning" line of questioning of a molestation victim, including staring at her breasts, was suspended for the maximum of five years yesterday for professional misconduct.
The Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body for the legal profession, had harsh words for Mr Edmund Wong Sin Yee's "disgraceful" conduct and his "irrelevant and wholly impermissible" line of questioning, which Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon noted was intended to humiliate the victim.
Mr Wong, who was not present in court, maintains he had not done anything wrong, which the court said weighed against him. "It is extremely difficult to reform one who does not appreciate the error of his ways," said the Chief Justice.
Mr Wong, who runs his own firm S Y Wong Law Chambers, had defended a 24-year-old student from China who was accused of brushing his forearm against the breast of a 22-year-old woman on an MRT train in July 2014.
While he was cross-examining the victim at the trial in 2015, Mr Wong repeatedly asked if she thought she was attractive. He also made her stand up, whereupon he scrutinised her chest.
To the victim's objections, Mr Wong retorted he would be asking even more insulting questions.
When the district judge intervened, Mr Wong sought to justify his line of questioning, saying he was trying to establish if his client had been tempted to molest her.
Xu Jiadong was found guilty and jailed for five months.
The district judge dedicated six pages of his grounds of decision to Mr Wong's "unacceptable" cross-examination. The Attorney-General's Chambers lodged a complaint with the Law Society.
A disciplinary tribunal found that Mr Wong had breached professional conduct rules and referred his case to the court.
Yesterday, his lawyer, Mr Eugene Thuraisingam, said that Mr Wong's focus on attractiveness was aimed at advancing the case that the woman was so plain the accused had not even noticed her.
more at : https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/lawyer-suspended-for-humiliating-molestation-victim