A hypnotherapist has been jailed for forcing women to perform sexual acts under his control.
Bradford Crown Court heard Ian Roper, 58, “ordered” his victim to remove her clothes whilst he sat on a hot sunbed and made her believe he was applying sunscreen to her body.
When the woman finally woke up, the man tried to “put her back to sleep” so that she would not realize what had happened.
Roper initially claimed the charges against him were false but later pleaded guilty to soliciting sex without consent and possessing five indecent images of children.
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Sentencing Roper to 29 months in prison on Friday, Judge David Gordon said his client’s interests were driven by “selfish and sexual” desires.
The court heard the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was assaulted during her second hypnotherapy session with Mr Roper, a licensed therapist.
At the meeting, prosecutor David McGonigal said the defendant first touched her shoulder to “put her to sleep” and then took her “to safety”.
He said the plaintiff noticed the defendant’s voice had become “sexy” before he approached her and began to sit down.
Mr McGonigal told the court: “He said the only voice that mattered was his and she had to follow his commands.”
“He told her he was lying on the sunbed and getting hot and needed to put on some imaginary sunscreen.”
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McGonigal said Roper unhooked the woman’s bra and instructed her to remove her clothes while he continued to apply the imaginary cream to her body until she woke up.
He said: “She managed to regain consciousness and pushed the defendant off.”
But when she got up to get dressed, Mr Roper grabbed her and “tried to go back to sleep”, McGonigal said, adding that she would not remember what happened.
After the woman filed a police complaint, Roper told police he had never had sexual relations with anyone while under hypnosis.
However, during a subsequent police investigation, officers found five indecent images of children and one prohibited image of a child on Roper’s laptop.
Judge David Gordon sentenced him to 25 months for the sexual offences and a further four months for the indecent images.
The judge also said Roper, from Calderdale, West Yorkshire, must register as a sex offender for the next 10 years and imposed a restraining order against him.
Judge Gordon also imposed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which includes a ban on Roper working as a hypnotherapist.
