Appeal court upholds sexual assault conviction for Sask. massage therapist

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Saskatchewan's highest court has dismissed an appeal and increased the sentence for amassage therapist found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman with a mental capacity of an11-to-13-year-old girl.

In April 2015, a Saskatoon judge sentenced Laurie Thompson, who practised in Kindersley, Sask.,to 22 months in jail and two years probation for sexually assaulting a client.

During the trial, he admitted to to sexually touching the woman, who is now 36, around 100 times over a number of years in his office.

Court heard heinserted his fingers into her vaginaduring the sessions, which began in the late 1990s.

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The woman cannot be named, as her identity is protected under a publication ban.

According to a recent decision by Saskatchewan's Court of Appeal, Thompson appealed his conviction on the basis that the trial judge overlooked the credibility of the complainant and "argues that the verdict as a whole was unreasonable."

Convicted argues touching was consensual

Thompson also argued the trial judge did not takeinto account the possibility of "honest but mistaken belief in consent," and a proper analysis of the trust and authority issue.

At trial, Thompson testified that he always asked the complainant for verbal permission before touching her, but in a statement to police indicated she did not say anything during massage sessions. The complainant said she didn't consent.

The trial judge determined Thompson's sexual touching was not consensualand hewas in a position of trust as a massage therapist and friend of the complainant's family.

Court hands down stiffersentence

The courtdismissed the verdict appeal,but granted a sentence appeal from the Crown.

The Crown argued the trial judge "misapprehended the gravity of the offence" by Thompson by not categorizing it as a major sexual assault due to the lack of violence and penile penetration.

"Sexual assault is an implicitly violent offence against the integrity of a person's body even where there may be no explicit violence," the decision reads.

The Crown said during trial, the judge erred by minimizing factors like the complainant's mental capacity, level of vulnerability andpsychological harm experienced.

As a result of the errors, the court sided with the Crown that Thompson's sentence of 22 months in jail was as unfit and replaced it with three years incarceration.

"This was not a case where the touching occurred once or a few times. Rather, it was a persistent course of abusive conduct spread over many years," the decision reads, adding Thompson was in a position of authority and trust.