A 56-year-old masseur from Nijeveen has been guilty of sexual assault, according to the Public Prosecution Service (OM). He was sentenced to three months in prison and a three-year ban on his profession.
At the beginning of last year, the man treated a woman who had complaints after an operation. The woman was friends with the masseur’s wife at the time. “I trusted you completely. Even when I was vulnerable, in underpants and with cotton pads on my eyes, on the treatment table,” the woman said in her victim statement at the hearing on Tuesday.
Because the first treatments went to her complete satisfaction, she did not notice what was happening at first. She felt touched in intimate places. “My body locked up, I lay there as if paralyzed,” the woman said.
After this treatment she said to the masseur: “What was that, that was on the edge.” She was told that she had had a ‘Queen Treatment’, which would be ‘finished next time’.
That comment was not intended to be sexual, the man told the judge. Another customer was waiting, which meant the treatment took less time. He would catch up on this next time, he explained. By ‘Queen’s treatment’ he meant the full attention he had given her. The masseur denies that he touched her lewdly.
It’s the woman’s word against the masseur’s word. In principle, that is insufficient for a conviction. More evidence is needed for this, beyond the statements of the man and the woman. This is called ‘support evidence’. And there is, said the prosecutor. The man’s phone was searched on February 23, 2022. He knew then that the police would come to him, the prosecutor said.
According to the public prosecutor, essential app messages are missing. Messages that were found on the complainant’s phone. The woman messaged him saying that “what happened yesterday didn’t feel right.” The man replied that he was sorry and she did not have to pay for the treatment. The tone and manner in which this conversation was conducted supports the woman’s story, the prosecutor said.
She is convinced that the actions had a sexual nature. “Contrary to the social ethical norm,” she said. The man abused his professional dominance and the trust she had in him.
By denying he is not taking any responsibility, the prosecutor said. Paul van Jaarsveld, as lawyer for the suspect, called the woman’s statements unclear and not concrete.
He pointed out to the judge that the suspect had already been working as a masseur for ten years at that time. There have never been any complaints, the lawyer emphasized. This woman’s accusation is isolated, the lawyer said.
Moreover, the phone was not seized according to the rules and the messages cannot serve as evidence, Van Jaarsveld said. “Then there is insufficient evidence for a conviction and an acquittal must follow.”
Verdict in two weeks.