Woman tells of feeling ‘terrified’ during massage
A woman has told of feeling terrified and “really trapped” as she resisted a masseur’s actions during a full body Chinese oil massage at a Christchurch shopping mall.
She was giving evidence on the first day of the re-started trial of 59-year-old Cunbin Zhang, a part time masseur who denies 17 charges of indecent assault at a Christchurch District Court trial before Judge Stephen O’Driscoll.
The trial was abandoned on its first day on Monday and began again today with a newly selected jury in place.
Crown prosecutor Anselm Williams alleges that Zhang – who is hearing the court proceedings with the help of a Mandarin interpreter – indecently touched four women during shopping mall massages in November and December 2012.
The complaints involve accusations that the masseur massaged or touched women’s breasts, inner thighs, pubic areas, and buttocks. One charge alleges that he pulled a woman’s nipples. Others claim that he shook a woman’s bottom, and pulled buttocks apart.
The defence has questioned whether the touching occurred in the way described, whether it was Zhang doing the massage, and whether the touching was indecent or was part of the full body Chinese oil massage.
The woman complainant said she had had full body massages every six to eight weeks for several years. The massage she described was not similar to the earlier ones, she said. “It wasn’t a massage. This was totally inappropriate. This was scary and it was aggressive and sexual.” She was wearing underpants at the time.
The masseur asked her to roll onto her back during the one-hour massage. She told the court: “I didn’t know what to do. I just felt really trapped. I really wanted to leave but I didn’t know how.”
She said the masseur was being aggressive and pulling at her skin. She was trying hard to keep her thighs together and it wasn’t easy. She eventually crossed her knees. She covered her breasts by crossing her arms. The man’s fingers were pulling at the skin on her upper breasts.
“I was holding really tightly and he was just trying to gain a millimetre at a time,” she said. “I was keeping my eyes shut and holding as tight as I could, trying to prevent him from gaining anything and the whole time he was making these disgusting grunting noises.”
She said she did not leave because the masseur was between her and her clothes and the door. “I didn’t know if getting up to get help would flick something in him. I was terrified.”
She and her husband later discussed what had happened and decided not to go to the police because she did not know how to show that she could not leave. There was also a family health crisis taking place at the time. She went to the police when they saw a report on the Stuff website about allegations about a masseur.
Cross-examined by defence counsel Bridget Ayrey, she said she had never previously experienced a full body traditional Chinese oil massage.
Miss Ayrey put it to the witness that it was quite appropriate for a thigh massage to attempt to access the inner thigh. The woman said other massages had used upward strokes and there had been little contact with the inner thighs, except for just above the knees.
Miss Ayrey asked: “You felt uncomfortable with this because it was unfamiliar to you.”
The witness replied: “No. It wasn’t acceptable.”
She said she had bought the GrabOne voucher on-line for a full body traditional Chinese oil massage.
Miss Ayrey suggested that the masseur was getting frustrated and confused because he was not being permitted to perform a massage that he understood he had been asked to perform.
Category: Focus
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