Jury: Police do not believe therapist abused teenager

A vulnerable teenager who was sexually abused by his counsellor in rural New South Wales was beaten by his father because he “ruined someone’s career” by taking the allegations to police, a jury was told.

The now former therapist, whose name or identity cannot be disclosed for legal reasons, is also accused of raping another teenage girl along with a local dentist in the back room of his practice in a small rural town.

On Monday, jurors in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court heard the defendant plead not guilty to a total of 42 charges, including indecent assault, sexual assault and sexual intercourse without consent.

The man, who is now over 70, is accused of sexually abusing 13 teenage or prepubescent boys in Sydney and rural New South Wales between 1977 and 1986.

“The prosecution believes that the defendant had a sexual interest in teenage and prepubescent boys,” said prosecutor David Patch.

“He acted on this sexual interest by using his position as a child counselor and therapist to sexually abuse at-risk boys in his care.”

In some cases he touched the boys’ genitals, in other cases he went further, the jury heard.

The crimes were committed at a youth center for troubled boys, a school and the man’s private practice, Patch said.

The therapist often used “relaxation techniques” to make it easier to touch and care for young boys, he told the jury.

Mr Patch said that after touching a teenager inappropriately, the defendant told him to masturbate daily as it would supposedly “release energy”.

In a letter sent following a complaint to the Australian Counselling Association, the defendant admitted to behaving “inappropriately” on occasion and apologised, the prosecutor said.

The therapist is accused of twice driving to nearby bushland with a second teenager on his lap and later sexually abusing the boy while pretending to sleep in his bed.

A third teenager was abused around 150 times over the course of several years, including being groped on the examination table, the jury heard.

“Just relax, it will help with the stress. You’re safe,” he is said to have told the teenager while touching her.

The jury heard that the boy was shown pornographic magazines in later sessions.

After repeated touching, he allegedly entered a “hypnotic state” and was asked by the defendant to move in with him.

The therapist and a local dentist later raped the boy multiple times with gloves and cream at a local clinic, the prosecutor said.

“He felt very uncomfortable and in pain,” the prosecutor said when describing such an event.

After upsetting the counselor by wearing women’s underwear, the boy stopped attending sessions and took his abuse allegations to the Catholic Church.

However, because the therapist was a respected member of the community, he was not believed and a bishop said there was nothing they could do, Patch said.

A fourth boy expressed similar expressions of disbelief and “gave it all he had” by repeatedly punching the counselor in the face after seeing him have an erection while being touched during a session.

He ran to report it to the police.

However, the therapist then appeared at the police station and his father was informed, the jury learned.

“His father beat him up and said, ‘You stupid, bloody little bastard. You’re going to ruin someone’s career,'” Mr Patch said.

The trial with Judge Penelope Hock will continue on Tuesday.

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