It is not good to be a woman in today’s society. Between the growing insecurity when we leave the house, the cyberharassment on social networks, or even the sexist and misogynistic remarks we experience on a daily basis, it is easy to get over it. Even when it comes to a medical appointment, such as with a gynecologist, or an appointment at a wellness institute, to relax, it happens that you come across people with unhealthy intentions. This is particularly the case of 13 clients (including a minor aged 15) from a beauty institute located in Cahors, who were represented on Thursday February 22, 2024 by a lawyer for the civil parties during the trial of their attacker. As revealed News Lotmost of women allegedly complained about questionable practices committed by the owner of the institute, also a masseurcalled K.
Facts dating back to 2022
To understand what K. is accused of, we have to go back to 2022, and to the first complaint from Ms. B., 27 years old, filed at the Cahors police station. To spend a wellness massage gift card, she goes to the establishment run by K. and his wife, which offers, in addition to a massage room, a private space with sauna, hammam, and jacuzzi. K., who has converted professionally to massages for around ten years and offers various services, then welcomes the client. First problem: unlike other institutes, Mrs. B. finds herself without a towel to hide her private parts when she undresses. Embarrassed, she subsequently lets K. do her massage, but is very quickly “stunned”, according to Actu Lot. The reason ? “K. would have lingered while passing his hands“ between her thighs and “by touching his penis”. He would also have “makes sensual caresses of the breasts”and Mrs. B. “would have felt that K. was erect when he rubbed himself against her, while performing the massages”.
5 years of ineligibility and 15 months suspended
Following the complaint of this first customer “paratified after all these inappropriate massages”, investigative work is then carried out. The investigators then take “contact with 164 clients of this institute, including 13 of them” confident “having suffered the actions of K. without daring to file a complaint”. All, every time, “report the embarrassment they endured, each pointing out a particular aspect.”
“All describe an abnormal situation with touching of a sexual nature, ‘experienced by surprise’“. If the accused “did not vary in his statements” and always denied “the desire to violate the privacy of its clients”, he did not, however, convince the Cahors court. After deliberation, K. was found guilty “facts for which he is being prosecuted” and was sentenced to “15 months suspended prison sentence, registration with the Fijais (automated judicial file for perpetrators of sexual or violent offenses), 5 years of ineligibility, 5 years of ban on carrying out an activity putting him in contact with minors, 5 years of ban on professional activity in the field of massage, to pay €6,650 divided between the various victims who had requested damages”. Still according to Actu Lot, “the court found that the massages were committed with sexual ulterior motives and that it was not possible to act in this way without the consent of the victims, which constitutes sexual assault.”