Masseur locked up after sexual assaults

A masseur has been jailed for three years for sexually assaulting four women while giving them naked massages, leaving them “frightened and ashamed”.

Callum Urquhart, from Bristol but recently living in Arbroath, was convicted of six charges of sexual assault following a trial at Salisbury Crown Court.

Sentencing the 38-year-old at Winchester Crown Court, Judge Angela Morris told him: “None of these women had agreed to receive anything apart from a conventional massage and on each occasion, they were vulnerable and exposed.

“You exploited the situation for your own sexual gratification.”

She said that one of the victims had sent Urquhart a personal message warning him “that you can’t behave like that without gaining their consent” to which he had replied saying he “promised to take it on board”.

The judge added: “You are assessed of posing a serious risk of harm to women by way of inappropriate sexual behaviour towards them.”

As well as the prison sentence, Urquhart was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order banning him from advertising or engaging in paid or unpaid massage services.

Rob Welling, prosecuting, said that Urquhart, who was not formally trained, would carry out the massages at the women’s homes, as well as at his own, in incidents which dated back to 2018.

He said the victims had been left “ashamed”, “confused” and “angry”.

Mr Welling said one victim “left a very forthright and blunt review for him, telling him what she thought of his professionalism and how the massage had gone”.