Perverted 'faith healer' jailed for groping patients with ‘healing hands’

A perverted healer who told patients he had “healing hands” before groping them has been jailed for three years.

Express, UK/August 25, 2016

By Joey Millar

Ian Gray, who practiced the Japanese alternative therapy of reiki, fondled his victims’ breasts and kissed them at his home, which doubled as his ‘Reading Rooms’ clinic.

He denied six counts of sexual assault between December 2008 and February 2014 but was found guilty of four at Basildon Crown Court yesterday.

Reiki involves the healer placing their hands on the body of their patient to alter their ‘chi’, or life force.

The court heard how the 59-year-old once put a chair against his door to stop a woman leaving, before putting a “heavy mask” over his victim's face and kissing her with his tongue.

On other occasions, he kissed one patient and “touched through her clothes”, and touched another patient underneath her clothes on numerous occasions.

The father-of-six defended his actions as “part of the therapy” an told the women the treatment would help “their long term health problems”.

Prosecutor Diana Pigot said one of Gray's victims had been left with “severe anxiety and depression” as a result of the assault.

Ms Pigot said: "She very much treated the Reading Rooms as her second home and treated the defendant as a father figure. "She felt totally dominated by him."

As well as being jailed, Gray, who is married to a clairvoyant, was put on the sex offenders register for life and ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge.

Detective Constable Jon Holden, said: "The sentence given reflects the seriousness of the offences committed against these women.

"Ian Gray took full advantage of his position as a reiki healer and spiritualist medium and targeted these vulnerable victims who came to him for help.

"He returned their trust in him by sexually abusing them over a long period of time.

"Gray was predatory in his actions, grooming his victims while maintaining an air of respectability throughout the local community and spiritualist community.

"If it wasn't for the bravery of the women who came forward, he would not have been brought to justice and I can only commend them for breaking their silence."