SINGAPORE – A 76-year-old former junior college teacher diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease has been sentenced to 15 months’ jail for a string of molestation offences committed between 2022 and 2024. The elderly man, Lim See Poi, pleaded guilty on March 11 to five charges of outrage of modesty involving both adult and underage victims. The case has drawn attention due to Lim’s frontotemporal dementia, a condition that impairs impulse control, raising questions about criminal responsibility and public safety.
Dementia cited but no leniency for harm caused
Deputy Principal District Judge Kessler Soh acknowledged that Lim’s frontotemporal dementia had affected his ability to restrain his impulses (CNA). Medical reports from Singapore’s Institute of Mental Health in 2023 and 2024 confirmed the retired teacher’s diagnosis and suggested it contributed to his misconduct. “I hope that after his sentence, his family will be able to step up supervision of him, and restrict his movements outside home to stop his reoffending,” the judge said, emphasizing that Lim’s illness did not erase the harm done to his victims.
Neurologists describe frontotemporal dementia as a disease causing irreversible damage to the brain’s frontal and temporal lobes, often leading to personality changes and loss of social inhibitions. Research has found that criminal or socially inappropriate behavior is significantly more common in patients with this form of dementia than in those with Alzheimer’s disease. However, legal experts note that under Singapore law, an offender can only be acquitted by reason of insanity if completely unable to understand or control his actions. In Lim’s case, the court deemed him fit to stand trial and be held accountable, using the dementia as a mitigating factor rather than a free pass from punishment.
Repeat offences despite prior warnings
Court records revealed that Lim was no stranger to the law even before this jail term. He had received a 12-month conditional warning in April 2019 for an earlier outrage of modesty offence (The Straits Times). Such warnings are issued in lieu of prosecution and come with conditions – typically requiring the offender to stay crime-free for the duration of the warning period – after which charges may be dropped. Lim, however, breached the spirit of that warning: in October 2020, during the warning period, he was arrested and charged with three further offences, including two counts of molestation and one of insulting a woman’s modesty.
In August 2021, authorities showed leniency again by granting Lim a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on those 2020 charges and issuing a second 12-month conditional warning. Medical assessments at the time indicated Lim’s dementia had substantially contributed to his actions, which may have influenced the decision to avoid a prison term then. Lim did stay out of trouble during the second warning period; but soon after it expired, he reoffended.
Molesting women and schoolgirls in public
Lim’s new offences spanned two years and showed an alarming pattern of targeting females in public places. On Oct 12, 2022, just weeks after his conditional warning lapsed, Lim accosted a 41-year-old woman near Aljunied MRT station. He abruptly asked her for sex and, when she rebuffed him, grabbed her chest before fleeing (Shin Min Daily News).
One particularly troubling episode occurred on Sept 20, 2023, at a crowded food court in NEX shopping mall in Serangoon. Lim intruded on a table of four secondary school girls (aged just 12 and 13), claiming he was “too old to teach” at his former school and offering to be their private math tutor. His conversation quickly turned lewd. Lim told the girls he liked teaching female students because he could hug them, then made grotesque remarks – calling the young teens his “sex toys” and proclaiming each could be his wife from Monday through Thursday. The traumatized girls managed to escape and were later found “crying and shaking with fear,” according to reports. One of the students lodged a police report the following day despite the shock they all suffered.
Habitual offender vs. illness: court’s balancing act
When Lim finally faced justice in court, he was initially charged with 13 offences ranging from outrage of modesty (molestation) to attempted sexual harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act. In the end, Lim pleaded guilty to five representative molestation charges, with the rest taken into consideration for sentencing.
During sentencing submissions, defence lawyer Ng Shi Yang argued for leniency on account of Lim’s medical condition. However, prosecutors pressed for a significant jail term, stressing that Lim had become a habitual sexual offender whose illness should not excuse his actions. The prosecution argued that deterrence and protection of the public were paramount. They sought a sentence in the range of 14 months and 1 week to 20 months’ imprisonment, noting that Lim’s pattern of behaviour only ceased when he was taken into custody.
After weighing both sides, Judge Soh imposed a 15-month jail sentence, reflecting the court’s attempt to balance Lim’s diminished self-control against the severity and persistence of his offences.
A rare case raising tough questions
Lim See Poi’s downfall from a respected educator to a convicted molester in his twilight years is an unusual and troubling saga. This case shines a light on how Singapore’s justice system strives to navigate such complexities. It demonstrates that even when an offender suffers from dementia, the courts will act to protect the public and deliver justice to victims. At the same time, judges may temper penalties in acknowledgement of medical circumstances – as seen by the relatively moderate jail term and the emphasis on counselling and family supervision in Lim’s situation.
Ultimately, Lim will spend the next year and a quarter in prison, during which time he will also receive psychiatric treatment and counselling aimed at preventing reoffence. Upon release, his movements are expected to be heavily restricted by his family. “The priority is that the public, especially children, are kept safe,” said lawyer Gloria James-Civetta, commenting generally on offenders with dementia (Today Online).
