Therapist’s kiss was a treatment too far

Sep 4 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal

ASCHOOLTEACHER told yesterday how she lay partially naked on a bed and “passionately kissed” her reflexologist as her mother sat in the waiting room next door.

The mother-of-one agreed to the appointment with Stuart Hill even though a colleague had warned her he had “wandering hands”, she told a jury at Durham Crown Court yesterday.

She also attended his Meridian Massage clinic at Neville’s Cross, Durham, despite Hill asking her on the telephone if she would mind him “talking dirty” to her. The teacher, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she began attending £10 sessions at Hill’s clinic where he practised Chinese hormone treatment, which involved him helping her to become sexually aroused.

She said the treatment was making her feel much better.

But on her last appointment, when he told her it was his “mission” to help her achieve an orgasm, she said: “I was concerned about the noise. I didn’t want my mother to hear anything.”

She had originally gone to see him because she suffered from a nerve-related illness which rendered her helpless at times.

“Holding a handrail on a bus, even eating my dinner was difficult,” she told the court.

She said she thought Hill was “like a god” because he was able to make her feel better, and told him: “You should approach the NHS with your treatments.”

She said on her last visit, her mother had accompanied her to the clinic and waited outside as the woman agreed to Hill massaging her intimately to help arousal.

But when she failed to achieve an orgasm, he lay beside her on the bed, and the pair “kissed passionately”, she told the court.

She said: “For me, the kiss overstepped the line.”

That night she told her partner what had happened, and the following day she contacted police.

When asked by Tom Moran, defending Hill, why she had agreed to an appointment after he asked whether she would mind him talking dirty, she replied: “I didn’t think he was being serious.”

She agreed she had been told Hill had convictions for sexually assaulting women patients, and was known to have “wandering hands”, but said: “I was told that, but I didn’t want to believe it.”

Hill, 57, of Red Courts, Brandon, near Durham City, denies six charges of sexual assault, two of assault by penetration and one of indecent assault.

The case continues.