Who is Mr. Edmund Wong Sin Yee? Alvinology looks at this lawyer’s rise to infamy

Mr. Edmund Wong Sin Yee is a lawyer who recently defended a man in court accused of brushing his arm against a woman’s breast on the train. The man was 24 years old and the woman 22 years old.

According to reports, his client had been convicted of the crime and spent five months in jail. While the judges in the case ruled on the client, part of the decision penned included Wong’s disgusting line of questioning.

How disgusting were his comments?

Reports said that during questioning of the victim for the trial, Wong asked her what she thought of herself – if she thought she was pretty and similar questions. He also asked the victim to stand up and then proceeded to scrutinise her breasts.

He asked what their size and measurements were, and similar questions along that line.

When the victim complained about the questions, Wong then said that he would continue to ask along the same line.

The judge then interfered, according to reports, and asked why the questioning must go on this way. What Wong responded was that he was trying to establish that the victim was not attractive enough for his client to do what was being accused.

Once the decision on that particular case was released, the Attorney General filed a case with the Law Society. A disciplinary tribunal found that Mr Wong had breached professional conduct rules and referred his case to the court.

There, his own lawyer said that he only used that questioning to show that the victim was plain and unattractive enough that the accused would not notice her, let alone brush his arm against her breast.

He was found guilty and suspended from practicing law for 5 years.

Not the first time he’s done something like this

According to other reports, Edmund Wong has been in trouble before. He had used an expletive in court two years ago, according to The New Paper, when he was asking a client whether she had taken money to perform sexual intercourse.

While he was able to pass the bar in 1998, he was making trouble as early as 1992. He had punched a nurse and insulted a separate female attendant at the Singapore National Eye Centre.

After hitting another driver in an accident, he also insulted the driver’s wife in 2001. For this particular road rage incident, he got suspended for two years.

In 2004 to 2005, he allegedly got quite busy and set up a drug ring that was shipping ketamine all over Asia. Transactions were said to add up to millions of dollars.

According to reports, he used ex-clients to smuggle ketamine from Malaysia to Taiwan, and from Malaysia to China through Hong Kong.

He had returned to practicing law around three years ago, and was removed from police supervision then.

Is he remorseful now?

Further reports said that he was relieved not to be disbarred and was remorseful now, looking back at how he questioned the witness.

What do you think of Mr. Wong? Let us know in the comments!

Header image from The Straits Times.