TV sex therapist accused of raping client told her ‘my penis is like laser beam that can burn up trauma’
A TV sex therapist told a client his penis was ‘like a laser beam’ which could ‘ burn up trauma’ before he allegedly raped her during a session, the High Court has heard.
Michael Lousada, a former investment banker turned ‘orgasm guru’, is being sued by his former client ella Janneh over claims he sexually assaulted and raped her on August 18, 2016, at his clinic in Belsize Park, north London.
Mr Lousada, who previously appeared as a guest on this Morning, denies sexually assaulting and raping Ms Janneh, and insists the activity was consensual and a ‘legitimate’ part of his therapeutic methods.
Ms Janneh, 37, has launched a civil legal action against Mr Lousada, 57, in the High Court, since the Crown Prosecution service declined to pursue criminal charges.
At the start of a six- day trial Her barrister nina ross said in yesterday, Ms Janneh, who has her opening remarks that Mr Lousada waived her right to anonymity, said assaulted the unemployed she sought Mr Lousada’s help for artist, who now lives in Australia, panic attacks she was having claiming to use penetration ‘as a during consensual sex, which she therapeutic technique’. believed were linked to sexual Ms ross said: ‘the claimant’s abuse she suffered in childhood. case is that she did not consent to But barrister David Boyle, the sexual acts. she did not have representing Mr Lousada, claimed the mental capacity to consent. that notes the therapist made after his first of three sessions with Ms Janneh in December 2011 suggested her ‘objective’ was to ‘ become more orgasmic’ and ‘feel freer’.
Ms Janneh rejected this, saying: ‘i didn’t have a problem experiencing orgasm, so i don’t know why i’d be going to him to become more orgasmic.’
She told the court she ‘needed help’ because she was having ‘panic attacks in relation to the abuse i suffered as a child’. nor did she have the freedom to consent due to the power dynamic inherent in a therapeutic relationship, nor did she have all the information she needed to consent because he gave her no warning.’
‘N'othing about her behaviour has suggested she consented. she has thought of the incident as a rape from the day it happened.’ the court heard Ms Janneh visited Mr Lousada in 2011 and 2012, but no sexual activity took place.
But when she returned in 2016 for a ‘body work’ session – which she believed was similar to physiotherapy – Ms Janneh claims Mr Lousada massaged and penetrated her vagina with his fingers.
Apparently unhappy with how she was responding, he allegedly said: ‘you have a problem with penetration, so i think we need to use my penis. the head of the penis can act like a laser beam and burn up the trauma.’
Ms Janneh reported the incident to the Metropolitan Police the next day. no charges were brought and the case was dropped in May 2018. Ms ross claimed that Mr Lousada’s actions caused Ms Janneh ‘to suffer complex PTSD which has continued to affect her eight years on’.
Giving evidence, Ms Janneh said she spoke to Mr Lousada by telephone, explaining the nature of her panic attacks and that she wanted to overcome them.
She said: ‘i absolutely did not ask him to work on penetration. i never, ever, ever would have asked him to penetrate me.’
As well as suing Mr Lousada, Ms Janneh is also suing Anteros Books Ltd, of which he was a director, for damages over claims of assault, trespass to the person and negligence. Mr Lousada’s barristers said that while he accepts he penetrated Ms Janneh, this ‘was not to have intercourse, but to accommodate the claimant’s wish to work with penetration’.
In written submissions, Mr Boyle said Ms Janneh provided ‘clear, unequivocal consent’.
‘She continues to suffer from PTSD’