General Ling Insists Sexual Assault Allegations She Laid Against Richie Stephens Are True
Two years after he categorically denied rape allegations levelled against him in Australia, whilst on his Jamaican Flava tour, ‘Bad Bull’ singer Richie Stephens, is now under the microscope as the woman at the epicentre of the controversy, an ex-soldier who served in the Singapore Armed Forces, has revealed herself.
In November 2019, Stephens had posted on his Instagram page that a member of his Australian tour entourage had accused him of sexual assault. According to the Weakness For Sweetness artist, he had been forced to take to Instagram to address ‘the attempt made to smear his reputation.’ In the lengthy post, the former Motown artist had said the allegations were untrue and that the person, who had accused him, had been removed from the tour.
The woman had not been named.
Three days later the Governor-General Awardee, who was 52 at the time, followed up on his initial post with another, in which he stated that his management team had brought it to his attention that the ‘smear campaign’ was still ongoing despite his previous posts asking that the perpetrator “cease and desist”. He warned that legal action would be taken against his accuser.
The matter appeared to have died then and there, until Friday night when the 27-year-old former army woman, appeared on YouTube and claimed that she was the alleged victim at the centre of that two-year-old assault.
In the 25-minute video which she titled TW: The Truth about Richie Stephens in Australia 2019, the beatboxer and art educator who gives her name as Elaine Lim aka General Ling, and who is originally from China, sought to repudiate Stephens’ counterclaims and insisted that her allegations were true.
“Trigger Warning Hi my name is Elaine Lim aka. General Ling. This is my account of what happened in Australia, Nov 2019 during the Jamaican Flava Tour with the perpetrator in question…,” she wrote in her description of the video.
“Not All That Glitters is Gold, Not All That Shines is the Light, You Can Say It Wasn’t Told, But When The Truth Is Out People Will Know. Disclaimer: I want to clarify that dressing is a non-issue on such cases. In fact, the responsibility is never on the survivor, but heavily dependent on the perp’s intention and self control. This is an act of control and blatant disregard of a person. No, is a no. There’s nothing else to it. To the media: please direct all additional enquiries to generallingofficial@gmail.com To all who require proof of the police report that was lodged right after the assault, you can find it here,” she noted before adding a link to what she said was the report she gave to the police.
In the video, she detailed her experience of what she described as a brazen attack, in which she was overpowered and assaulted, despite her repeated “nos”.
“I do know there are two sides of the coin. But I know my truth and this is what I hold on to. I’d love to hear his explanation and for us to even get on even grounds to talk about what had transpired,” she said in a later response.
In a RiceMedia interview last year, titled From Soldier To Professional Beatboxer: How This Singaporean Woman Found Her Passion, General Ling said that she had released a Reggae song titled Not all that Glitters is Gold about her rape.
That song was a collab with Masia One, the Singaporean artist and party promoter with whom Richie Stephens had had also collaborated for the single Jamaican Flava.
After signing to Motown Records in 1992, Stephens released the album Pot of Gold, with hit songs such as Body Slam (with Patra) and Legacy (with Mad Cobra) which hit the Billboard charts and received heavy rotation on networks like BET.
“Me and Patra and Shabba [Ranks] and Cobra dem used to rule it [the early 90s],” Stephens told Backayard Magazine in 2017.
That year, Stephens was also awarded the Song of the Year and Digital Sales of the Year at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards for his contribution to Rihanna’s Work, which had sampled his 1998 Sail Away riddim.
Stephens did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.