On the third day of the trial on Thursday, the Singapore High Court heard that Tam Thanh Khong had given three different accounts in the statements on Sept 11, 12 and 13 last year, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported yesterday.
Asked why he changed the original statement in which he denied raping the 22-year old woman on Sept 10, he was quoted as saying he was scared and “worried about my family and four-year-old (daughter)” in London where he lives.
“I don’t want my parents to have a son who will get sentenced to jail. I don’t want my (daughter) to grow up with no dad,” he said.
Tam, 22, had in the second statement said he and the victim had consensual sex, while in the third statement he said his friend Richard, also known as Ahn Viet Trinh, had let him into the room at the Carlton Hotel and told him to have sex with the woman who was drunk and asleep.
“Having sex is not wrong… She knew exactly what she was doing and with (whom), and she was totally happy about it… This is not rape,” he said in the third statement.
Vu Thai Son and Michael Le, both 24, are also on trial for raping the woman that night. Tam and Vu face an additional charge each for sexually assaulting her, CNA reported.
The court also heard that Ahn, 24, who was being investigated along with Tam, Vu and Le, had left Singapore and his whereabouts were unknown.
The men, British citizens of Vietnamese descent, had arrived in Singapore on Sep 9 last year for Tam’s brother’s bachelor party, the report said.
Ahn met the woman at the Zouk nightclub and took her back to his room at the Carlton Hotel where they had sex before she fell asleep.
The report said CCTV footage showed Ahn letting Tam into his room at about 4am, and leaving him alone with the sleeping woman.
Prosecutors alleged that Tam raped the woman and sexually assaulted her.
Tam left the room after 25 minutes, after which Vu showed up and allegedly raped and sexually assaulted the woman as well.
After he left at 4.50am, Le was seen entering the room, the report said.
“He undressed, got into bed with the victim and raped her. The woman suddenly woke up (while she was being raped) and confronted Le,” deputy public prosecutor G Kannan was quoted as saying.
Le left the room after a “heated exchange”, Kannan added.
The victim confronted Ahn when he returned to the room at about 5.20am, and later lodged a report with the police.
CNA reported that in a statement recorded later that day, police asked Vu about certain text messages found in a group chat in which Vu said, “who’s next?”
He was also asked about a text message sent by Le in which Le told his friends that he had had sex with the woman, the report added.