Disgraced massage therapist preyed on his victim’s faith
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article contains some sexual content. Reader discretion is advised.
One of the victims of a disgraced former Penticton massage therapist claims her faith in Christianity was weaponized to gain her trust.
The woman is one of six complainants whose allegations of professional misconduct against Leonard Krekic were upheld earlier this month by a disciplinary panel of the College of Massage Therapists of B.C.
In total, the panel found Krekic committed 36 separate acts of professional misconduct — many involving touching for a sexual or non-therapeutic purpose — between 2012 and 2019 while Krekic was working in Penticton and Surrey.
Krekic was also cited for flouting a 2019 order that was issued in the early stages of the investigation and required him to have a chaperone present while working on female clients, file weekly summary reports of his work and keep the college apprised of treatment locations.
The panel’s 185-page decision, which anonymized the victims’ names, does not specify in which cities the incidents took place, except for those involving Patient 6, who received treatment from Krekic in Penticton.
Patient 6 told the panel she began seeing Krekic in March 2019 when she was 21 years old for treatment of irritable bowel syndrome on the recommendation of her mother, who was also a client of Krekic’s.
She testified the first appointments was at Lake City Wellness in Penticton and later saw Krekic at other locations for a total of 27 appointments over a period of seven months.
Patient 6 told the panel she was aware of the earlier allegations against Krekic but wasn’t concerned because she and Krekic were both Christians.
She testified about multiple incidents during which Krekic touched her vaginal area and pressed his own groin against her hand while he worked on her. The woman also testified Krekic prayed for her during sessions and that they sometimes prayed together. She now believes Krekic exploited her faith.
“I was very vulnerable and I believe that he saw that and he took advantage of it,” she testified.
During that same period, Krekic was subject to the college’s order requiring him to have a chaperone present while he worked on female clients. Patient 6 told the panel a chaperone was indeed in the room during their appointments, but that Krekic told her the person was simply “job shadowing” and the person didn’t actually observe the treatments.
Things between the two got even stranger when Patient 6 rented a home from Krekic and helped him rent out other residential properties he owned.
“Patient 6 testified that the respondent asked her to help him rent out his properties using her name because the respondent knew that his reputation ‘might have been tarnished a little bit’ based upon the news articles relating to the college complaint against him,” the decision states.
The panel’s decision was released Aug. 5 following 20 days of hearings last year. The panel will rule later on costs and penalties.
Krekic resigned his membership in the college in October 2020.
While the decision states some of the victims filed complaints with the RCMP, court records suggest Krekic has not been charged criminally. Penticton RCMP did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.