How come no news about yesterdays’ proceedings? I checked ST,
New Paper, TODAY …
A KIDNAP victim who had his ear sliced off.
Plane crash survivors who had to deal with the trauma, and
families of those killed who had to cope with the loss.
Dr Lim Yun Chin, a consultant psychiatrist with Raffles
Hospital, has treated them all and said they did suffer from
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
But he said the woman who claimed that she was forcibly
subjected to an alleged exorcism, did not show genuine PTSD
symptoms.
Dr Lim took the stand yesterday in the exorcism trial.
Madam Amutha Valli Krishnan, 52, claims she was the victim of a
forced exorcism at the Novena Church on 10 Aug 2004 and is seeking
compensation of at least $250,000.
She is suing the Redemptorist Order which runs the church, two
priests and six church-goers who allegedly helped in the
ritual.
A former president of the Singapore Psychiatric Association, Dr
Lim is a witness for Father Simon Tan, one of the priests involved
in the case.
He is also a forensic psychiatrist and has testified in other
criminal cases. He told the court he has treated survivors of the
SilkAir crash in Palembang, Indonesia, and the SQ006 crash in
Taiwan.
He also told the court he has treated someone who had been
kidnapped abroad and who had his ear sliced off. He did not
elaborate on that case.
Cross-examined by Senior Counsel Jimmy Yim, he said how
accurately PTSD can be diagnosed depends on how truthful and honest
the patient is with his doctor.
Madam Amutha had withheld vital information concerning her past
medical treatment at the National University Hospital (NUH) and the
Institute of Mental Health from her two psychiatrists.
He said in court: 'What she has withheld is half the moon.'
Associate Professor Ong Thiew Chai from Tan Tock Seng Hospital
and Dr Angelina Chan from Changi General Hospital had diagnosed
Madam Amutha with PTSD without knowing her past history, which the
defence had argued was a wrong diagnosis.
Dr Lim said doctors can make a mistake with their diagnosis if
adequate information is not provided.
In his affidavit, he said that meeting Madam Amutha convinced
him that she was 'capable of overt deception' as she had claimed
she had never seen a psychiatrist and was earning $15,000 a month
from giving tuition.
He came to the conclusion that he did not think her symptoms
will subside as long as she felt that she could get compensation
from her suit. He added in his report that he could not support the
diagnosis of PTSD as she had exaggerated her symptoms.
In court, Dr Lim said one way of knowing whether a person really
has PTSD is if he is unable to recall the traumatic event as he
would have been too dazed to remember.
The sufferer would also want to avoid it, he added.
But in Madam Amutha's case, she kept going back to that night at
Novena Church to recount events that had allegedly occurred. She
had also claimed to be in a trance state that night.
But after Mr Yim pointed out that she was able to recall enough
details to make a police report on the incident, Dr Lim said: 'If a
patient was able to recount events of her trance state, then she
was not in a trance at all.'
FRIENDS FACE OFF
Dr Lim then squared off with his good friend, lawyer Mr R S
Bajwa, who is representing Madam Amutha.
They have been friends for more than 10 years and Mr Bajwa has
even engaged Dr Lim's expertise in previous criminal cases. This
was the first time both men had been on opposite sides of the
fence.
Mr Bajwa began: 'Good morning, Dr Lim. Looks like we are on
opposite sides today.'
A smiling Dr Lim responded: 'Yes.'
But that quickly disappeared as both men later interrupted each
other in sometimes heated exchanges.
Dr Lim stressed he was not interested in whether Madam Amutha or
the Church was right.
He said: 'Based on both sides, they were engaged in warfare. It
was beyond our mortal minds to understand. They were engaged in
combat. Whether both sides were deluded, I don't know.
'But they were invoking the name of the supernatural to fight
each other.'
But Mr Bajwa had a simple question: 'How did it become a combat
zone when it was supposed to be just a prayer session?'
Dr Lim: 'The people at NUH knew that at the drop of a coin, she
can go into a trance. The people in that room (at Novena) did not
know that.
'They were pressing the very buttons that she could use to
combat them with.'
The trial continues today.
