‘Drunken spa boss in bikini groped client as he lay on a massage table’
A HEALTH spa boss drunkenly groped a protesting male client on a massage table with her breasts inches from his face, a court heard.
Kerry Brocklebank was wearing a bikini when she allegedly barged in to the room where the man was lying face down in his underpants.
The court heard how the client had asked for a sports massage with a male colleague. But ‘intoxicated’ Brocklebank walked in and rubbed oil on the man as he pleaded with her to stop, jurors were told.
Prosecutor Stephen Mather said: ‘Kerry Brocklebank... came in [wearing] swimwear, appeared intoxicated and started to massage him from the calves to his back ending to the point where she was more or less face to face, very close to him.’
Brocklebank, 43, is accused of sexual assault at her Huntingdon Spa & UK Sports Massage retreat in rural Cambridgeshire.
She denies the charge. The alleged victim, a keen runner who cannot be named, told Cambridge crown court he had booked a session with sports masseur Henry Godfree in October last year.
He said: ‘Kerry came into the room and said, “I’m going to start your massage while Henry’s not in here” to which I replied, “Don’t touch me, I’m here to see Henry”.’
The jury heard she ignored his pleas up to three times saying she was ‘qualified’ and proceeded to pour massage oils on his right calf. He said: ‘She carried on doing [that] before then rubbing my lower back as well.
‘At this point I’m still lying face down but I’m kind of twisted a bit to the right because I’m looking back to make a point of saying stop.
‘ She eventually moved around so that she was sat in front of me on a stool. She was just chatting again... I asked her to leave and get out. I could smell drink, as far as I’m concerned she was clearly drinking.’
He said Mr Godfree then came into the room and became ‘uncomfortable’, adding: ‘He just looked shocked, he genuinely looked a bit confused as to why Kerry was in the room. I felt violated, angry and just not at all happy about the situation at all.’
The court heard that Brocklebank was ‘six out of ten drunk’ on a scale of intoxication. Mr Godfree told jurors Brocklebank had been ‘ provocative and quite flirtatious’ in the waiting room beforehand, adding: ‘ She wasn’t dressed appropriately to be dealing with customers.’
‘She was wearing a bikini. She was very drunk.’
He said he heard a man say ‘don’t touch me’ and ‘get off me’ from inside the massage room, adding: ‘ At first he sounded sort of calm and then he sounded particularly panicked, a sort of sense of fear.
‘She was leaned over so her breasts would have been inches from his head.
‘She looked as if I was spoiling her fun.’
The alleged victim told Brocklebank he was making a complaint to an industry
‘But I’m here to see Henry!’
ombudsman over the incident and reported her to police. The court heard she later responded by offering a free massage and wrote a message saying, ‘again apologies, friends’ birthday. I shouldn’t mix business with pleasure’.
Brocklebank was also charged with perverting the course of justice by sending ‘offensive and threatening electronic messages’ to Mr Godfree between Octobeen ber 10 and November 19.
The messages included: ‘Sorry did I interrupt gay time?’ and ‘Believe me if this goes to court I will ruin you’, the court heard.
The court heard Mr Godfree sent a WhatsApp message to Brocklebank saying he was resigning that night. Emma Rance, defending, had earlier suggested Mr Godfree had lying when he said the business owner had been wearing a bikini at the time of the alleged offence.
Holding up a polka dot one-piece swimsuit, she said: ‘You know that [she] was in fact wearing this.’
But the sports masseur claimed it was not the swimsuit that Brocklebank had been wearing at the time.
The trial continues.