A septuagenarian naturopath tried for aggravated sexual assault to the detriment of nine victims was sentenced Tuesday, December 7 by the Lyon Criminal Court to three years' imprisonment, including one year suspended.
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The court issued a committal warrant and a ban on all personal care activity for five years.
The prosecution had required three years of imprisonment, including one year suspended and probation, for sexual assault committed with "
abuse of authority
", in connection with its practice of "
therapeutic massages
".
"We don't dare to move, we are paralyzed"
According to the accounts of the victims, the man engaged in gestures of a sexual nature during lymphatic drainage. The facts denounced took place between 2014 and 2017. At the hearing, the defendant, 71, accused the victims of "
lies
". "
There was no ulterior motive in my head
", he assured, describing with great gestures the virtues of lymphatic drainage.
"
The number of victims and their denials cause concern,
" said prosecutor Céline Cuny, about this man who ran an herbalist shop for more than twenty years in Lyon. Several young women described similar scenes to the police: hands on breasts, near sex, scientific speech interspersed with compliments, attractive prices to encourage new meetings. Coming to seek help for sleep or personal balance problems, the naturopath offered them massages and isolated them in a room lined with his diplomas obtained in Turkey, then asked them to undress. But "
for the humoral drainage, the patients are never naked or exposed, nor in their underwear, the gestures do not pass near the sex.
“, According to a naturopath heard in the file.
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"
We do not dare to move, we are paralyzed
", described a victim at the bar. "
You are young, beautiful and you have a weakness
", summarized Bénédicte Del Vecchio, lawyer incorporated as a civil party. The defendant's lawyer, Jean-Jacques Rinck, put forward "
very many testimonies
" and "
petitions
" recognizing his qualities. He also denounced "
the media lynching of people suspected of sexual assault
". Indicted and placed under judicial supervision in this case, the defendant is suspected of having committed other acts, when he had just obtained the lifting of his professional ban. He appeared in custody, charged with "
rape
”As part of another ongoing judicial investigation.