Therapist jailed 11 years for claiming intercourse may ‘heal trauma’

Need to know

Gerald Peck, 77, a bodywork psychotherapist convicted of five sexual offences, was sentenced to 11 years at Lewes Crown Court after sexually abusing a vulnerable woman under the guise of therapy

Everything you need to know

• A sick therapist who claimed he could heal a woman’s trauma through sexual touching has been jailed for 11 years.
• Gerald Peck, 77, worked as a bodywork psychotherapist and was convicted of five sexual offences at Lewes Crown Court. The perverted pensioner penetrated his victim with his fingers and gave her oral sex, claiming it would “heal her birth trauma” and provide “energy release”.
• Judge Mooney slammed the fraudster, saying: “You were banned from practising by the Bioenergetics Institute because in the late 1980s you used your position to sexually abuse women under the guise of therapy. Since that date you’ve been nothing more than a charlatan and a fraud.”
• The victim had sought help for depression and anxiety in 2021 when she was recommended Peck’s bogus services. His twisted “therapy” involved removing clothing for skin-to-skin contact, which he claimed would “soothe nervous systems”.
• Peck told the vulnerable woman her “inner baby needed to suckle” before the sessions escalated to kissing, nudity and sexual touching. The depraved therapist attempted to convince her that having sex would be a form of healing.
• A lawyer from the Centre for Women’s Justice called the case “completely outrageous”, highlighting the dangerous lack of regulation that allows “quacks” to prey on vulnerable people. The victim said Peck “caused profound and lasting damage” to her mental and physical health.
• She revealed she still suffers “terrifying flashbacks” more than five years later and worries other women are being harmed by predators like him.

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