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Sex-for-contracts trial: Star witness grilled over ‘intimate’ relationship with own boss

49-year-old Pang Chor Mui, the prosecution's star witness in former SCDF chief Peter Lim's corruption trial, exits the Subordinate Courts on day 2 of her taking the stand. (Yahoo! photo)

The woman at the centre of former Singapore Civil Defence Force chief Peter Lim’s corruption trial on Tuesday was questioned over her "serious, intimate" relationship with her own boss at technology company Nimrod Engineering, among a host of discrepancies between statements she gave to investigating officers and her testimony in court on Monday.

49-year-old Pang Chor Mui, who was formerly the general manager at Nimrod, took the stand for a second day, where prosecutors cross-examined her on nine areas where her court testimony deviated from what she initially told officers from the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), recorded between January and February last year.

Speaking on Tuesday morning, Pang told deputy public prosecutor Sherlyn Neo that on most counts, there was more truth in her statements made last year than in her testimony in court as her “memory was fresher” at the time. Prosecutors stopped short of impeaching Pang, instead applying to substitute statements she made in court with the ones she gave to CPIB early last year.

On the nature of Pang’s relationship with her boss, Nimrod Managing Director Tamil Selvan, during the time when she engaged in oral sex with Lim in May 2010, Pang said she and Selvan were nothing beyond friends, describing it as an “intimate friendship”.

In her statements to the CPIB however, she said Selvan was her “boyfriend”, adding that she held off further intimacy with Lim because she did not want to “betray” Selvan, whom she admitted on Tuesday to be her boyfriend over the past five years.

Another significant discrepancy lay in Pang’s reasons for giving fellatio to Lim — which on Monday she said was because she “liked him a lot”. Prosecutors quoted a further statement from her to the CPIB last year where she said it was a “mix(ed) feeling”, adding that she “did not want to antagonise him”. She was also further quoted as saying, “It is not good for our friendship and maybe my company’s dealings with (the) SCDF.”

On Monday, Pang also testified that she reduced contact with Lim after their tryst because she was busy, but prosecutors pointed out that she had failed to mention her second reason of avoiding him because he was married, which she gave to CPIB recording officers.

Pang’s cross-examination with defence lawyers continues on Tuesday afternoon.

Additional reporting by Nurul Azliah Aripin

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