Doctor and friend convicted of taking ecstasy at Sentosa villa party, judge rejects spiking defence

She said the defence relied on the evidence of two men who were at the villa at the time.

One man testified that he had witnessed a foreigner crushing a green ecstasy pill and putting the powder into a cup filled with liquid that was passed around.

Another man testified that an American had offered him a pill in the master bedroom.

The judge said these accounts established that drug-related activity may have occurred at the villa that night, but that neither man gave evidence about the movements or conduct of the accused men.

She found both accounts by Dr Lee and Tan were not credible.

Dr Lee had testified that he consumed three drinks, accepting the second and third out of courtesy. He said the second drink was from a foreigner from the United States or Canada, while the third was from a stranger.

He was unable to identify any of the men from the photo board of arrested people.

Judge Sangeetha said the specific details Dr Lee provided at trial were “entirely absent” from his police statements, where he said he could not recall who had passed him the drinks.

According to Dr Lee’s first statement, he felt a “little off” and light-headed and euphoric after consuming his first drink.

He compared these sensations to how he had felt when he had previously consumed drugs in Thailand, said the judge.

Despite recognising these sensations, Dr Lee accepted two further drinks in an environment he described as “out of control”.

“Such behaviour can hardly be described as that of an unsuspecting victim,” said Judge Sangeetha.

Tan testified that he consumed three drinks that night, one of them from the birthday boy.

He saw a group of men using syringes to transfer liquids from blue bottles to silver plastic cups on a table. However, Tan later helped himself to a drink from this table and noticed white residue at the bottom of the cup which looked like crushed tablets.