Lethbridge Courthouse. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Trial begins for Lethbridge massage therapist accused of sexually assaulting client

Oct 27, 2020 | 3:26 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – ** WARNING: This story contains graphic details **

Day one of a judge-alone trial has begun after a client claims she was touched inappropriately by a massage therapist.

Cyprien Mudenge, 53, is charged with one count of sexual assault, to which he has plead not guilty.

The victim, a 36-year-old woman whose name is protected under a publication ban, told Lethbridge Court of Queen’s Bench Tuesday that she attended a north side massage clinic on November 28, 2018.

She had been going to the office regularly for deep tissue massages as they help to deal with the pain and discomfort of fibromyalgia.

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On the day she made the appointment, she was told by the receptionist that they have a new male Registered Massage Therapist (RMT), and if she agreed to have him do her massage instead of her normal RMT, she would get a 60-minute session for free. The woman agreed.

The woman testified that everything started out normal – she got undressed but left her underwear on, laid face-down on the table, and covered herself with a sheet before Mudenge knocked on the door and asked if she was ready.

He started massaging her feet and worked his way up her right leg. The woman says Mudenge moved her legs into a “figure four” position with the left leg straight and the right leg on top of it in a “V” shape.

She alleges that Mudenge fully removed the sheet from the right side of her leg, fully-exposing the right side of her butt. Mudenge touched the outside of her vagina in a “cupping” motion with his hand.

When asked if she wanted him to do that, if he asked her if he could do that, or if she told him he could, she arrested to the court, “absolutely not”.

Mudenge allegedly then started massaging her butt without the cover of the sheet, something she described as “unusual” and “inappropriate”.

The woman explained that, while his fingers were on her glute, his thumb circled her rectum.

She again said that this was not something she wanted, nothing he had asked to do, and nothing she told him he could do.

In her testimony, she described the feelings of shock and fear as to why she did not tell him to stop at this time. She also wanted to be 100 per cent sure that the way he was touching her was inappropriate to avoid making any false accusations.

Mudenge then massaged her lower and upper back, which the complainant said was normal.

He asked her to turn onto her back and she did so with the sheet obscuring the view.

As the RMT started massaging the front of her leg, the woman says she started to collect her thoughts and work up the courage to say something.

He allegedly touched the top of her clitoris and started to move down her vagina.

It was at this point that the victim told him to “please stop” and to leave the room.

After the woman left, she called her boyfriend, who encouraged her to report the situation to police. She went to the police station later that day, and after the initial statement, was asked to give two additional statements on different days.

The defense attorney for Mr. Mudenge brought up inconsistencies between her testimony in court and the statements she made to police back in 2018.

He states that the woman could not properly remember the specific order of which body parts the accused massaged or in what manner he moved her underwear.

The defense argued that the complainant was offering “differing versions of events” and claimed that she lacked credibility.

The trial is set to resume Wednesday with an interpreter speaking for Mudenge.