Law prof says ex-student was making use of him
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Source
Straits Times
Date
12 Apr 2013
Author
Walter Sim And Bryna Singh
IT WAS his former student Darinne Ko who was more guilty because she was making use of him to give herself a better future, law professor Tey Tsun Hang had claimed in a statement to anti-graft officers last year.
"I wish to say that her motive for giving me the gifts and sex was with guilty intent," Tey had said then. He is now on trial for corruptly obtaining gifts and sex from Ms Ko in exchange for awarding her better grades. "She invested or gave me a little. In return I had to give her a bright future."
Tey, 41, had also accused Ms Ko, 23, of expecting him to show her favour, to help her become a justice law clerk and get into an international law firm. "I think that she is guiltier than I am," he said.
These emerged yesterday as Tey, who is conducting his own defence, cross-examined the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) officer who recorded the statement on May 18 last year.
The statement, taken by CPIB deputy director of investigations Teng Khee Fatt, is one of six that have since been admitted as evidence by the trial judge.
Tey explained in the statement that he had bumped up Ms Ko's grade for her research paper from D to A, to improve her cohort ranking.
"She belongs to the bottom 20 to 25 per cent (of the cohort)," the statement read. "With an A for her research paper, she may be promoted to the top 20 per cent."
Mr Teng, however, testified yesterday that he had learnt later that it was impossible for Ms Ko's ranking to improve just by awarding her an A grade.
This prompted a testy exchange, with Tey accusing Mr Teng of "negligence". He charged that the CPIB officer should have been aware of that before recording his statement, and yet "insisted on extracting a false confession" from Tey.
But Mr Teng explained that he was unaware then because he had not read the statements recorded by other CPIB officers that explained the process, prior to his meeting with Tey.
At this point, Tey slammed a stack of papers onto a bench.
Tey, who has been trying to challenge his confessions in the statements, later implied that Mr Teng was responsible for the implication of "two innocent" assistant registrars of the High Court in the case, but Mr Teng disagreed.
He said it was Tey who brought up the names of assistant registrars Colin Seow and Elaine Chew, and who had claimed they gave him items such as a printer, a watch and a shirt.
These, however, are not related to the six corruption charges.
Earlier, Mr Teng was also questioned about his meetings with Ms Ko last year, in relation to the prosecution's application to discredit her January court testimony. The court heard then that Ms Ko had struck a deal with Mr Teng over the wording of her statements, to which he denied.
But yesterday, Tey accused Mr Teng of "disbelieving" Ms Ko.
He said the two occasions of sex with Ms Ko were acts of love by her and not bribes, especially since they were her first and second sexual encounters - one of which occurred on her then boyfriend's birthday.
"You assumed it was a mutually corrupt relationship, when it was a romantic one," he said to the CPIB investigator.
Mr Teng again flatly dismissed Tey's allegation and added: "We do not assume. We find facts."
The trial continues today.
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