'Next Swedish massage is without sexual I promise': What deaf and blind masseur, 61, texted victim after groping her during free session for her birthday - as he is jailed for 30 months

  • Derek Aitcheson, 61, has been jailed and added to the Sex Offenders Register  
  • The deaf and blind Sherwood masseur groped a woman's breasts and thighs
  • Aitcheson argued the woman had come on to him because she took her bra off 

Derek Aitcheson, 61, touched his victim's thighs and breasts during a massage at his home in Sherwood

Derek Aitcheson, 61, touched his victim's thighs and breasts during a massage at his home in Sherwood

A deaf and partially blind masseur has been jailed after he groped a client during a free session he offered her as a birthday gift.

Derek Aitcheson, 61, has been locked up for 30 months after he groped the woman in his home in Sherwood.

The couple initially met after sharing a dance in a bar in Nottingham.

Aitcheson gave her his business card and they swapped text messages about a birthday massage.

When the woman went to his home she saw he had certificates on the wall and a massage room upstairs. After filling out a form over allergies she stripped to her underwear and lay down on the table.

A judge said Aitcheson, 61, let his desires get the better of him during the incident in May last year, as he jailed the profoundly deaf and registered blind former Nottingham City Hospital worker.

His victim said she has attempted overdoses twice since the assault in which the qualified masseur groped her breasts and put his hand between her legs, a court heard.

Giving evidence his victim said: 'I was on my back. He put relaxing music on, he did use oils and he started massaging my arms. It made me feel pretty relaxed, I didn't suspect anything at all, to be honest.

'He started massaging my legs. He started going a bit too far, he went a bit far up my thighs.

'He then started touching places where he should not be touching.

'He climbed onto the table,' said the woman, who told the court that he then touched her sexually.

She got off the table, hurriedly dressed and ran downstairs as Aitcheson thrust a comments book at her.

The woman said: 'I wrote it was very relaxing but I just wanted to get out of the house as quickly as possible.'

The court heard that she went to her mother's home but was too embarrassed to talk about it. Later, she discussed it with a friend who said it was a sexual assault.

She sent Aitcheson a text, telling him: 'My friend said you sexually assaulted me.'

He replied: 'I never sex with my customers.' 

A later message from him said: 'Next time you come for Swedish massage without sexual I promise.' 

The defendant denied three charges of sexual assault during the seven-day trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

A jury found him guilty of the two more serious allegations and cleared him of the lesser one.

Aitcheson was convinced the woman wanted him to touch her sexually, he said.

During the trial, Aitcheson said the woman told him he was 'fit' by mouthing the word. She also touched his arm and said: 'You are strong.'

When she removed a dressing gown before the massage, he noticed that she was not wearing a bra, he said

.

Speaking through a sign language expert, Aitcheson said: 'I thought she would have a bra on. She seemed to be quite happy. She went 'it doesn't matter.'

'She had got on a g-string but no knickers. That is why I said 'please put your dressing gown back on.' I had never seen anything like that in my life.'

Derek Aitcheson invited the woman to his home for a free 'birthday massage' but sexually assaulted her when she was on his table 

Derek Aitcheson invited the woman to his home for a free 'birthday massage' but sexually assaulted her when she was on his table 

He said that he used towels to cover intimate parts of her body and when he asked if she wanted her breasts massaged, she nodded. He avoided touching her nipples, he claimed.

Aitcheson told the jury that the woman twice touched one of his thighs.

Then she 'rotated her thigh' to expose herself before slightly shifting one of the towels, he claimed. That prompted him to 'glare' at her, he said.

Miss Lewis asked: 'Why did you think she had moved it?' He responded: 'I think she must have wanted something but I didn't want anything.'

Anya Lewis, defending, said that Aitcheson suffers from severe asthma, was born deaf and his eyesight was severely harmed by glaucoma in his 20s.

Judge Timothy Spencer QC told Aitcheson: 'You were drawn to her. There was a sexual attraction from a very early stage. That was not reciprocated - that is the clear implication of the jury.

'On the evidence, she was in your house for approaching two hours. For the vast majority of the time, you carried out a perfectly appropriate and very effective massage.

'One of the results was that she became very relaxed and not attuned to the risk of predatory sexual misbehaviour by you.

'You accused her at a number of stages of encouraging sexual activity. It is clear the jury rejected those allegations against her made by you.'

Aitcheson will be put on the sex offenders' register for life.

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