Doc told lies to cover up incriminating exchanges: Prosecution

Confronted with text message records that showed his frequent usage and understanding of drug lingo, Singaporean doctor Ler Teck Siang "concocted absurd lies" to distance himself from the damning messages, the prosecution told a district court yesterday.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Nicholas Wuan said Ler's text message records with convicted drug abuser Sim Eng Chee showed that Ler was aware of the practice known as "slamming" and had injected illicit narcotics into abusers for a fee.

Yet, Ler claimed he had only provided massage services and insisted that all references to "slamming" or the use of utensils in his messages were part of a running inside joke between him and Sim.

DPP Wuan said that the doctor, who has been suspended, "prevaricated" on why he had methamphetamine-stained drug utensils with him when he was arrested with Sim on March 2 last year.

Ler is facing a charge of possessing drug-related utensils that day, on top of a charge of injecting methamphetamine into Sim a few days earlier on Feb 26.

After his arrest, he told Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers that a methamphetamine-stained syringe found on him was used to clean his teeth.

However, Ler later testified that the syringe belonged to his American partner Mikhy Farrera-Brochez and that he had intended to throw it away.

"The accused's constant prevarications are testament to his lack of credibility and can be contrasted with Sim's testimony, which is clear and corroborated by the text message records," said DPP Wuan in the prosecution's closing submissions for the case.

Ler, who is representing himself, responded that the prosecution's case rested solely on Sim, who had testified earlier in the trial to hiring Ler for "slamming" services.

"Sim's evidence is not substantiated by any independent physical evidence," said Ler, who is currently serving a sentence for drug consumption and possession.

Ler added that Sim had "changed his tune" - the witness had initially told CNB officers that Ler had nothing to do with the drugs found on him - so that he could use it as a mitigating factor in his own case.

Sim denied this claim earlier during the trial.

DPP Wuan said Ler had not once tried to account for his text message records with Sim, the reason being that "he knows the text messages are damning".

The case has been adjourned to next month.

Ler and Farrera-Brochez - who was convicted in the United States of charges relating to leaked identification documents in Singapore - are at the centre of the HIV registry scandal, in which the details of 14,200 HIV-positive patients were leaked online.