Richie Stephens Says General Ling’s “Baseless” Accusations ‘Do Not Help #MeToo Movement’

General Ling’s rape allegations against Reggae artist Richie Stephens, have taken another twist, with the former Motown singer releasing a public video statement, once again repudiating the claims by the Chinese-Singaporean artist and beatboxer.

Yesterday, General Ling, a former Singapore Armed Forces soldier whose given name is Elaine Lim, revealed on YouTube that she was the woman at the epicentre of rape allegations levelled against Stephens whilst on his Jamaican Flava tour in Australia in 2019.  The allegations had sparked a release from the Bus The Place artist, who had categorically denied the assertions without naming the woman.

In the 25 minute video which she titled TW: The Truth about Richie Stephens in Australia 2019 , General Ling insisted that her allegations were true. The 27-year-old detailed her experience during what she described as a brazen assault, in which she was overpowered and assaulted, despite her repeated “nos”.

In a brief three-minute video, which he titled Richie Stephens Sets The Record Straight , Stephens once again addressed Ling’s allegations.

“Initially, I said I wasn’t going to say anything but now I think I owe it to my family to my friends and to my fans to come out and set the record straight,” Richie said in the video, which he shared to his YouTube channel and Instagram page on Saturday.

“Miss Elaine Lim came out on social media and made some allegations against me.  Some of what she said is true, but I am here to tell you what is true.  One, she was on tour with me in Australia in 2019; two, she made a formal report to the police against me.  Three, she did a rape kit.  But what she did not tell you, a thorough investigation was done by the Australian police,” the Westmoreland native said.

He continued: “I was detained; they took a statement from me; a statement from her; a statement from other people and there were cameras in the vicinity.  While I was detained, I called my attorney Mr Christopher Townsend, who advised me on what to do.  And at the end of that investigation, they found her allegations were simply baseless.”

In the aftermath of what transpired over the last 24 hours, Mr. Townsend spoke with DancehallMag.

“As his lawyer he had contacted me early in the day when the authorities detained him.  He used his one phone call to call me.  I gave him instructions on how to treat with it; he followed suit,” Townsend recalled.  “The investigations were quite thorough as he indicated and at the end of the day, the evidence gathered pointed equivocally to his innocence.”

The Attorney-at-law also took the opportunity to warn artists to be careful of persons in their personal circles.

“I invite stars like Richie to be careful of some persons who want to be in your face to further their likes on their social media pages and to further their own gain.   A politician of good repute suffered at the hands of his friends who posted a video of him recently,” he said alluding to Former Agriculture Minister Floyd Green.

Added Townsend: “This is not the same situation but in this day and age, there is a trend here people appear to do things to see how many likes they can get, to see their numbers climb on their YouTube pages.  They are getting the satisfaction of seeing how many people like them at the expense of people’s reputations”.

In the video shared today, Richie Stephens accused the Chinese native, again, of trying to use his name to generate publicity for herself.

“You know what is true?  I really sorry for her to know that she would go that far to try and get some recognition,” he said. “We are living in a time where people are doing certain things   – we see it everyday – some people believe that likes are far more important than the truth.  And we are here today to bring the truth out.”

The Take Me Away singer also sought to the discredit contents of General Ling’s YouTube video, stating that there were glaring inaccuracies and fallacies within, and were signs of someone with a twisted mind.

As his address continued, Stephens, who is a native of Russia in Savanna-la-mar, Westmoreland, also took issue with General Ling asking to direct additional queries to her email address, and asserted that her intention was to seek fame.

“Now I am a very serious supporter of bringing sexual predators to justice.  But her allegations are simply not true.  There are people with serious issues as a result of sex crimes so when people like her come with all these lies, it does not help the movement.  I am Richie Stephens and that’s my piece,” he added.