You can go higher if you want to...
What blind peer ‘said to hotel therapist massaging his thigh before groping her’
A BLIND Paralympic swimming champion and peer told a beauty therapist ‘she could go higher if she wanted to’ while she massaged his thigh, a court heard yesterday.
Christopher Holmes allegedly grabbed the woman’s bottom at a five-star hotel and asked if she ‘did extras’.
The 48-year-old – who has the title Lord Holmes of Richmond – is accused of sexually assaulting the masseuse, groping her and asking to touch her breasts during a 90-minute deep tissue treatment.
but the nine-time gold medallist, who broke 35 world records to become one of britain’s most successful Paralympians, claims he only ‘lightly traced’ her outline to find out what she looked like. The peer, who has been blind since the age of 14, told police: ‘It is always difficult for me and other blind people to ask to touch sighted people, but it is a basic human instinct to want to know what somebody looks like and that is the only way we have.’
The Cambridge-educated solicitor is said to have told the masseuse ‘ she could go higher if she wanted to’ while she was massaging his left thigh, Southwark Crown Court heard. Towards the end of the £150 treatment on March 7 last year Holmes grabbed her arm and asked: ‘Can I see how you look?’, jurors were told.
The woman agreed, ‘thinking that this was what blind people do’, but she tried to pull away after Holmes ran his hands over her face, shoulders, sides and rested his hands around her hips, the court heard.
Prosecutor Linda Strudwick said: ‘ She allowed him to [touch her face], but then feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable at that point she began to move away.
‘Mr Holmes stopped her by grabbing her buttocks. He said, “Nice” and he asked if he could touch her boobs. She said, “No”. He asked if she “did extras” and pointed towards
‘Do you do extras?’
his crotch.’ When the shocked masseuse replied, ‘No, I am a professional’, the peer is said to have asked her: ‘Are you sure you’ve never done it?’
The masseuse told the court yesterday she felt ‘sick’ when he asked for ‘extras’, but didn’t run off as she didn’t want to spook the peer’s guide dog, which was also in the room.
The court heard that Holmes, who joined the Lords in 2013 after retiring from swimming to become director of Paralympic integration for the London 2012 Games, had already removed the paper underwear he had been asked to wear, claiming it had ripped, and also ‘flicked’ a towel to expose his buttocks.
The peer insists the touching was innocent and denies the charge of sexual assault.
The trial continues.