Accused upskirter Jarmal David Richard testifies at hearing

A personal trainer accused of sexual assault and taking inappropriate “upskirt” photos of clients has taken to the stand to defend his conduct.

Jarmal Richard. Picture: Facebook

A personal trainer accused of sexual assault and upskirting has defended his conduct in a Geelong court.

Jarmal David Richard, 54, of Winchelsea, fronted Geelong Magistrates’ Court on Friday charged with 13 offences, including one count of sexual assault, eight counts of stalking and four counts of upskirting.

Friday’s hearing was a continuation of a marathon, multi-day contested hearing that began earlier this month.

The charges relate to eight complainants, with some being clients of Mr Richard and many of the photos being taken in his personal gymnasium at his home.

In some cases, Mr Richard is alleged to have taken hundreds of in appropriate photos of the women, while one woman was allegedly sexually assaulted when Mr Richard “brushed her vagina” during a massage.

Mr Richard took to the stand to deny any and all allegations of in appropriate conduct.

Presented with the women’s testimony and photos taken from low angles, Mr Richard told the court the photos were taken in “bursts” to “identify technique”.

“The reason that angle is important, is if they’re favouring a certain side of their body, it’ll show,” he said.

Mr Richard said other photos, taken in the context of a running club, were similarly to identify technique; in the case of one complainant he was helping evaluate “her walk gait and balance”.

Mr Richard testified that he asked for consent to take the photos beforehand, showed them to clients during and air-dropped clients “a section” of the photos afterwards.

When asked he if he got sexual gratification from the photos of any of the women, Mr Richard said: “absolutely not”.

The court heard Mr Richard gave items such as Harbinger gloves and Lululemon towels to every client “male or female”.

Some complainants had taken the items, which also included sports bras, as gifts and one alleged victim testified that Mr Richard’s phone “was an extension of his hand”, the court was told.

Mr Richard’s lawyer, Penny Marcou argued the police investigation lacked impartiality due to a “scattergun approach” and involved “cherrypicked photos”.

Prosecutor Matthew Fisher objected to some of the questions Ms Marcou asked Mr Richard while he was on the stand.

“It seems that a great deal of this material has nothing to do with the complainants and its

irrelevant at best,” he said.

Material highlighted by Ms Marcou included academic articles about fat distribution, gait analysis and a letter from an event at a church where Mr Richard was set to be a keynote speaker before being replaced.

Ms Marcou suggested that it was cancelled due to police contacting the church, a point the court heard the lead investigator had denied earlier in the hearing.

When Ms Marcou began to introduce evidence of Mr Richard also training male clients, Mr Fisher again objected, telling the court the prosecution didn’t dispute that fact.

“There’s going to be some self-serving commentary by the accused, which is in appropriate,” Mr Fisher said.

The hearing will continue next week.

Originally published as Accused upskirter Jarmal David Richard testifies at hearing