Jailed, sports massage therapist who sexually assaulted 21 victims
A SPORTS therapist who sexually assaulted 21 men during massage sessions has been jailed.
Matthew Priest preyed on clients who had been seeking treatment for their muscular injuries.
He sexually assaulted victims between January 2015 and June 2018 at his business, The Edinburgh Clinic, which was based at his flat in the city. Priest, 41, admitted six attacks on men in December 2018 and was sentenced to a five-year Sexual Offenders Prevention Order, a two-year supervision order and ordered to do unpaid work.
At Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month, the therapist pleaded guilty to a further 15 sex assaults and returned to the dock yesterday to be sentenced.
Sheriff Donald Corke said: ‘These further 15 cases have arisen from the publicity surrounding the [first] case, so it is no fault of the prosecution that they were not prosecuted at the same time.
‘You performed intimate massages on these men, including full removal of their clothing.
‘Your behaviour was clearly harmful, your behaviour was planned and you abused your professional position. You even charged them as if you had provided the services they expected.’
Prosecutor Susan Dickson had previously told the court Priest’s victims had included students, amateur runners and an Edinburgh Festival Fringe performer.
Priest – who charged £45 an hour for therapy sessions – would start massaging the men in the areas where they had been suffering pain, but soon began brushing his hand against their private parts.
The court heard he deliberately placed his hand under their underwear or towel before repeatedly touching the men’s intimate areas.
The victims, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, mostly believed the touching was ‘an accident’, but later reported the incidents.
Defence solicitor Matthew Nicolson said all the offences took place over the same time period and that his client was now ‘a very different man’.
However, Priest was jailed for 16 months and placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.