Man Jailed for Lying to Annul Marriage With Wife from China; Claimed Wife ‘Wilfully Refused Sex’

Hello and welcome to the How to Be a Good Person in 2020 examinations.

Here is your first question:

Your partner has just discovered you’re having an affair with someone else and wants a divorce. What do you do?

a) Come clean to both families about the affair, accept their criticism, and initiate divorce proceedings

b) Go back in time and choose not to have the affair

c) Blame it all on your partner and try to get an annulment, risking jail time in the process

Most of us would go for option a), since we don’t have the technology for b) yet.

No one would possibly choose c) right?

Right?

Man Jailed for Lying to Annul Marriage With Wife from China; Claimed Wife ‘Wilfully Refused Sex’

Oh. 

A 25-year-old man was sentenced to a week in jail after he lied in court to obtain an annulment.

The man said that after marriage, his wife had “wilfully refused” to consummate the union, but they had had sex several times.

According to CNA, Daryl Lim Chun Leng married his then-wife, China national Wang Kechen, in January 2017.

Contrary to what Lim said, he and his wife had engaged in consensual sex several times that year after their marriage.

But then trouble erupted in paradise after Wang found out Lim was having an affair.

The couple wanted to separate, but Lim wanted to avoid having “divorcee status” so he suggested an ingenious solution.

He proposed that they annul the marriage on the basis that they had not consummated it.

This way, the legal proceedings would also be cheaper.

If she went along with his plan, he pledged to maintain appearances in front of her parents and to agree to her future requests.

Wang agreed.

Lied in Family Justice Court

Lim hired a lawyer to initiate annulment proceedings, but had to lie to secure the annulment.

The 25-year-old said in court that Wang had wilfully refused to consummate the union, and the district judge believed him, declaring the marriage void in November 2017.

But then, Lim admitted during investigations that the couple had actually engaged in consensual sex between January and July of 2017, as well as in August and October that year.

As for why the investigations were initiated, no one knows. 

Wang has since returned to China.

Annulment vs Divorce

While both an annulment and divorce end in the dissolution of a marriage, the difference is that a divorce terminates a legally valid marriage while an annulment declares marriage legally null and void or invalid.

After a successful annulment, both parties’ marital status will return to “single”, instead of a “divorcee” in the case of a divorce.

A couple must have a valid reason to annul their marriage, though, one of which is the refusal of one party to consummate the marriage.

Other grounds for annulment include:

• Fraud – the couple entered into sham marriage
• Bigamy – one of the spouses was married to someone else during the time of marriage
• Forced consent – if one of the spouses was threatened or forced to marry

Of course, if you’re caught lying just to attain an annulment, you could actually be jailed for up to two years and fined for making a false claim before a court of justice.

As your parents used to say, lying just makes everything worse.

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