‘Pervert’ massage therapist gets six-years after pleading guilty to 50 charges including rape
A Brisbane massage therapist who ‘preyed’ on victims who included females, children and clients who were intellectually impaired has been sentenced to six years behind bars.
Samuel MacBean committed the perverted acts for his own 'sexual gratification' and was sentenced in the Brisbane District Court earlier today.
He pled guilty to a staggering 50 charges, including counts of rape and sexual assault.
The stunned courtroom had previously heard he abused five female children and 16 women during his time as a massage therapist.
Two of the victims included intellectually impaired clients.
The abuse included touching them in and around their genitals and breasts, as well as capturing footage on a laptop that was covertly filming the sessions.
MacBean owned a business called Moorooka Therapeutic Massage in Brisbane's south at the time the incidents occurred.
"You took advantage of your position for your own sexual gratification, in breach of the trust which had been placed in you," Chief Judge Kerry O'Brien said in sentencing.
"To have secretly filmed those women in those circumstances only makes your offending the more egregious."
“The several victim impact statements which have been tendered speak loudly of the destructive effect which your conduct has had ... on many of those complainants,” according to News Corp.
The court also heard MacBean had lost his career and marriage in the wake of the charges.
“You are, it seems, remorseful for your conduct and psychological reports suggest insight into your offending ... and to your credit you have sought some professional assistance,” the judge said according to News Corp.
The judge said victim impact statements spoke loudly of the destructive and humiliating effect MacBean's conduct had taken on their lives.
The judge also noted a psychological report providing some insight into the reasons for offending.
He spoke about MacBean's apparent remorse and the 376 days he has already spent in custody.
In a previous hearing, one of MacBean's former clients and victims said seeking out what she thought was his professional treatment would probably be the greatest regret of her life.
"I have been ripped open and exposed to someone who doesn't deserve to know me," the young woman told the court.
"A fear has been created in me that was never there before."
The judge recommended the 43-year-old, who will now spend his April 30 birthday behind bars, be eligible for parole in two years.
The mother of one of MacBean's victims spoke outside court about the damage done by his offending.
"My daughter won't go ever to any masseur; she wouldn't come here to court," she told ABC Radio.
Crown prosecutor Amelia Lode told the court during the case that MacBean's behaviour was systematic, premeditated and a perversion of the therapeutic relationship between health professionals and their patients.
In his clandestine recordings of the sessions, she described MacBean at times looking up and smiling at the camera in a "sinister aspect" of his offending.
The court also heard MacBean would direct clients to use a special cream after their massage, placing the lotion near the laptop recording the footage so they would apply it in full view of the camera.
But his lawyer, Eoin Mac Giolla Ri, made a public apology to all MacBean's victims on behalf of his client, whom he said had a "very, very confused idea of what was appropriate sexually".
News break – April 29
