Lim and the Spyros were placed under arrest on 5 March 1979.37 Lim was charged on 12 March that month with causing the death of 76 people by a rash act.38 He was also charged with applying heat to a part of a tank containing flammable substances before inspection could be carried out to ascertain that it was free of such substances. On 23 July 1979, Lim was found guilty on two charges – the rash act was subsequently amended to a negligent act – and sentenced to six months’ jail on each charge. The jail sentences were to take place concurrently.39
Lim successfully appealed against the sentences in the High Court. On 20 February 1980, then Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin set aside the conviction after finding no criminal liability on Lim’s part. In overturning the conviction, Wee said that the trial district judge had depended only on the evidence of one prosecution witness, and that the prosecution had failed to make out a case for convicting Lim with an act not amounting to culpable homicide.
In a separate hearing, Jurong Shipyard was fined S$20,000, while its repairs manager Y. Sekido was fined S$10,000