Five women have spoken about their anxiety, trust issues and disgust after it was revealed their massage therapist had been secretly filming them.

“Every room I enter now I scan for recording devices. I don’t know how I will cope when the time comes for me to be alone in a room with a male health practitioner …” one woman said of the man’s offending.

“This man violated me, assaulted me, all while I was paying for him to do this … His actions have left me with ongoing issues that I am still to this day dealing with”.

Neither the man, known only as Mr A, nor his five victims, were named in the deputy Health and Disability Commissioner’s report into the incidents which was released today. The complaint was referred there after he pleaded guilty in court to five charges of making an intimate visual recording last year.

It wasn’t just the covert recordings that the deputy commissioner looked at in her own investigation but also reports of inappropriate touching, poor coverage and requests that patients remove their underwear.

“I don’t remember exactly where his fingers were at the exact time because it was massaging and rubbing and pushing. But it definitely was in an area where I would have had pubic hair, within that sort of area,” one of his victims told the commissioner.

Another patient said that the man would massage between her buttocks as well as her breasts. Other patients complained of the man massaging very close to their genitals or nipples.

Many of his patients complained about the way he draped a towel over their mostly naked bodies; often readjusting it or moving it in a way that made them feel extremely vulnerable.

“‘It makes me sick to my stomach knowing I returned to this man for treatment, and on reflection just think I was too embarrassed to complain or say anything to him,” one of his victims said.

Another of his victims said it felt like she’d paid the man to abuse her and was concerned that he would go on to do this to someone else if not adequately watched.

While the therapist has admitted the pain he’d caused in filming his victims he has remained unapologetic about the way he conducted the actual massages, telling the HDC “what I did wrong wasn’t during the treatments”.

“If [any one] of [the consumers] informed [me] that they felt uncomfortable I could have done something about it but they didn’t. If [any one] of them questioned why I am touching them here I could have explained why [I am] working where I am,” he said.

“I listen to you[r] body about how much to use and look for warning signs but, I don’t know how you are feeling. I think I am doing okay but you may [feel] like I’m killing you. You need to tell me, I don’t know what is in your head.

“You don’t like something I’m doing, tell me. If it feels good, tell me. I failed clairvoyance 101. "

The man denied asking patients to take their underwear off and said that he was fine with people undressing to their level of comfort but said that more clothes meant a “crappier massage”.

Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Dr Vanessa Caldwell opted to refer the case to the Director of Proceedings who can then refer the case up to the Health Practitioner’s Disciplinary Tribunal if it meets the threshold.

Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Dr Vanessa Caldwell. Photo / Supplied

Caldwell said the man’s failure to give his patients informed consent, his touching of sensitive areas and multiple breaches of his professional standards meant the referral was necessary.

“Making these recordings was a gross breach of trust and professional boundaries, and it is clear that this violation of privacy in the context of a consumer-provider relationship has had a significant and ongoing impact on the women involved,” Caldwell said in her finding.

Caldwell said filming the women amounted to sexual exploitation even though the man didn’t financially benefit from making the recordings.

“I remain of the view that this constitutes sexual exploitation because it is clearly an abuse of a position of trust as a therapeutic provider and, in my opinion, it is more likely than not that the purpose of making those recordings was for Mr A’s sexual gratification,” she said in her finding.

Caldwell also noted that just because a client didn’t specifically object to something didn’t mean that it amounted to consent.

She directed him to write apology letters to each of his victims and if he were to return to being a masseur - which she strongly discouraged him from doing - that he undertake multiple training programmes from Massage New Zealand.

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.

This article was originally posted on the NZ Herald here.