• Ran Wei Dong allegedly molested a paralegal, then 22 years old, at Kang Foot Wellness
• The alleged victim testified that he touched her inappropriately after he massaged her feet
• He had asked her to go to a massage bed that was separated by a curtain
• Ran’s lawyer argued that the molestation never happened

SINGAPORE — A 35-year-old man who owns a massage establishment in JCube mall went on trial in a district court on Monday (Jan 25), accused of molesting a female customer after giving her a foot massage.

Ran Wei Dong, a Singapore permanent resident, is challenging one charge of outrage of modesty against the Singaporean woman — a paralegal now aged 24. She cannot be named due to a court order to protect her identity.

Ran, who runs Kang Foot Wellness, was the only person present in the shop when she went there for a massage on the evening of May 3, 2019.

She took the witness stand for most of Monday as a prosecution witness, giving her version of events and telling the court how she felt following the incident.

She could not see him in court as he sat behind a screen in the dock.

An investigation officer from the police’s Special Victims Unit testified briefly about retrieving WhatsApp chat messages between the woman and a female friend, who had recommended Kang Foot Wellness to her.

TOLD HIM ‘ENOUGH’

The alleged victim testified that she had injured her ankle while doing Muay Thai as a sport. She went to Ran’s establishment to relieve her pain.

She agreed to pay S$35 for a 40-minute foot massage. Ran told her to wash her legs, gave her a pair of shorts and asked her to wear them instead of her own jeans.

He then massaged her feet in an open area of the shop. Afterwards, at Ran’s suggestion, they moved from the massage chair to a nearby spot with a massage bed, which was separated by a curtain.

She testified that he had told her he could “press” her waist in order to help her ankle pain. She agreed as he sounded like he knew what he was doing, she told the court.

She then lay face down on the bed as Ran drew the curtain shut.

He massaged her left ankle first, then moved up her leg with his fingers performing “circular motions”, she said. “At this point of time, I kept fidgeting because I felt very uncomfortable and I really didn’t know what he was trying to do,” she added.

She told him in Mandarin, “Enough”, but he did not stop. “It kept feeling like his fingers wanted to go into my panties,” she said.

Ran massaged her right leg in the same manner and when she told him “enough” again, he continued for about a minute, before rolling down the waistband of her shorts and massaging her waist.

When he finished the session, she noticed through his pants that he was aroused. She said that he also asked her how old she was, then told her that he thought she was 16 or 17 years old.

She eventually left the establishment after paying.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Bin questioned why she had not left earlier. She replied that she was afraid and did not know what to do. “I just froze,” she added.

The next day, her male friend headed back to JCube with her and, while the woman waited outside, asked Ran what he did. “(Ran) kept asking where I was, could I go down to the basement to meet him? He would apologise to me for whatever he has done,” she testified.

Her friend also asked Ran why he had been aroused after the massage.

“His words were, ‘You need to know your girlfriend is very pretty’ — like he was trying to make (my friend) understand why he did what he did, I feel,” she told the court.

She filed a police report at Choa Chu Kang Neighbourhood Police Centre one day after the incident.

Ran allegedly approached the female friend who had recommended that the woman get a massage from him, to ask if she would drop the charges against him and accept compensation out of court.

‘ALWAYS VERY SICK’

Questioned as to how the incident affected her, the woman said that she relied on her law firm colleagues for support.

She did not dare to take public transport to work out of fear of crowded places. She instead took a taxi in the morning, waited for rush hour to be over at the end of the day, then took the train home.

“I was always very sick and it got to a point that I was always on (medical leave)… My boss questioned why I am always unwell. I was also later diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome. I don’t know how it came about, maybe because I was very stressed every day,” she added.

When cross-examining her, Ran’s lawyer Terence Tan from Genesis Law Corporation charged that the alleged molestation had never happened.

He played close to 20 minutes of closed-circuit television footage taken inside the massage establishment, saying that the clips did not suggest she was very scared or froze. At one point, she and Ran had chatted and she had told Ran where she worked.

“I suggest that you would know it’s something wrong, as a paralegal dealing with criminal law cases,” Mr Tan told her, referring to Ran purportedly touching her inappropriately.

She disagreed.

The trial continues on Tuesday with further cross-examination of the alleged victim.

If convicted of molestation, he could be jailed up to two years, fined, caned, or any combination of the three.