New Zealand Parole Board -

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(1) of the Parole Act 2002

David Kang Huat LIM

Hearing: 10 February 2020

at Tongariro Prison

Members of the Board:

• Judge G F Ellis – Panel Convenor
• Mr A Spierling
• Ms M Kleist

DECISION OF THE BOARD

1. David Kang Huat Lim is transgender and identifies as female [withheld].  Ms Lim is serving a sentence of five years’ imprisonment on five charges of disabling or stupefying and five charges of indecent assault on a male over 16.
2. Ms Lim was found guilty at a jury trial.  There were four complainants.  Ms Lim was practicing as a doctor at the time, used a drug to render the victims unconscious before indecently assaulting them.  Ms Lim still denies her offending in respect of any of the four complainants.
3. Her sentence commencement date was 18 August 2017.  Parole eligibility date 1 February 2019.  Sentence expiry date is 1 June 2022.  Ms Lim has no prior criminal history in New Zealand.
4. Ms Lim was last before the Board on 25 February 2019.  At that time Ms Lim waived her attendance.  The Board noted that she was in denial of her offending and therefore had received no rehabilitative treatment.  It was noted that she had some support in Malaysia but her risk was still undue while untreated.
5. The Parole Assessment Report (PAR) before us advises that Ms Lim continues to deny her offending.  She still has no safety plan.  It is said that she has the support of her family in Malaysia who are “aware of her offending”.  When we asked Ms Lim about that she said that one of her family members was a lawyer and had received details of the charges from her lawyer in New Zealand.  She confirmed that while her family is aware of the nature of the charges and the fact of her conviction they also believe her denial of the offending and it therefore follows they do not accept that she is guilty.
6. The PAR also advises that Ms Lim plans to retire from medical practice on her return to Malaysia and also advises that [withheld].
7. Ms Lim has a low assessed risk of re-offending leading to imprisonment in this country (RoC*RoI of 0.15704). However, nothing has changed since her last appearance before the Board.  She is still denying her offending, has not undertaken any rehabilitative intervention and has not applied herself to the preparation of a safety plan, even a plan based on denial.  There is no detail of the support available to her in Malaysia nor of accommodation and the information now supplied regarding her family’s attitude towards her convictions indicates that there may be a lack of other protective factors available to her in that community.
8. It follows that Ms Lim is still considered to pose an undue risk, whether released in New Zealand or in Malaysia and it is apparent that position is unlikely to change in the near future.  Accordingly, the Board will not see her again for 18 months, a date to be set before the end of July 2021.
9. It has been made clear to Ms Lim nevertheless that if there is any change in her situation, if she is prepared to undertake any rehabilitation or, at the very least, to co-operate in the preparation of a meaningful safety plan and to provide more detail of her release proposal then she may seek an earlier return to the Board under section 26.