FEB 20, 2003
FIGHT IN GEYLANG OVER PROSTITUTE
Pimp jailed for stabbing athlete
in revenge that went wrong
A PIMP who came out worst in a fight with a stranger over the asking price of a prostitute, sought revenge but stabbed the wrong man by mistake.
Lim Thiam Huat, 42, went after Mr Tommy Daniel, but ended up stabbing Mr Daniel's friend, Mr Jalon Renos Doweiya, 18, in a back lane in Geylang instead.
Both Mr Daniel and Mr Doweiya are from Nauru, an island in the western Pacific Ocean.
A district court jailed Lim yesterday for four years and ordered that he be given 10 strokes of the cane.
The incident happened in a back lane off Lorong 20 on Aug 7 last year. Lim claimed he was helping another pimp known to him as 'Ah Seow' settle a dispute with Mr Daniel, a bodybuilder who was in Geylang with seven other Nauru athletes.
He said they had an argument in the brothel over how much Mr Daniel should pay for sex with a prostitute for whom 'Ah Seow' pimped.
Mr Daniel punched Lim in the face as Lim was escorting him out of the brothel.
The court heard that Lim tried to ward him off with a pole, but Mr Daniel snatched the pole and hit him instead, knocking him out.
When Lim came to, he grabbed a fruit knife from a table in the brothel and went after the man.
Mistaking Mr Doweiya for Mr Daniel, Lim sank the knife into him, injuring him so seriously that he needed to have a kidney removed.
Lim was arrested two days later. By then, Mr Daniel had already returned to Nauru.
In mitigation, Lim's lawyer, Mr Kertar Singh, said his client had reacted in the heat of the moment.
He added: 'He was consumed by a deep sense of guilt, especially when told that he had injured the wrong party.'
