Open Justice reporting, funded through NZ on Air

A disgraced doctor who stupefied and sexually assaulted four patients has been denied parole again and looks set to remain in prison until her sentence ends in June.

David Kang Huat Lim, who now identifies as female, is scheduled for deportation to Malaysia at the end of her five-year sentence, but a Parole Board decision said she may be released into the community if she cannot be immediately deported because of Covid-19.

Lim continues to deny the offending and declined to appear before the Parole Board for its latest assessment.

The 46-year-old was convicted of disabling or stupefying and indecently assaulting four young men as they lay unconscious from a drug she administered during consultations for minor aliments at a doctor's clinic in Hastings in 2014.

Each was sedated with Midazolam and testified to waking up to find the GP rubbing their genitals.

"Ashamed" and "embarrassed" was how the patients described they felt after the assaults.

Lim was stripped of her registration to practice as a doctor in New Zealand and sentenced to five years in prison in August 2017 following a 10-day trial.

A Parole Board decision dated January 26 said because of Lim's denial of the offending she had not completed offence-focused treatment.

"In the circumstances, we are not satisfied that Ms Lim no longer poses an undue risk and parole is declined," the Parole Board said.

It said on release Lim was due to be deported back to Malaysia where the person she would live with was aware of the charges but did not believe Lim was guilty.

"It is difficult to know whether the release plan is appropriate or considers any risk to the Malaysian community.

"Ms Lim will be released at her sentence end date. Due to Covid-19 and together with the difficulties in obtaining flights it is possible that Ms Lim will be released into the community.

"Her continued detention in custody will be a matter for Immigration New Zealand."

INZ told the board it would need eight weeks' notice to make arrangements to deport Lim, if she had been granted parole.

Lim, who was born in Malaysia and trained in Scotland before arriving in the Hawke's Bay in 2006, will not be allowed to return to New Zealand once deported.