Timothy Van Eyle: Spa Mint massage guilty of idencency after groping woman’s breasts

A Bikram yoga competitor and massage therapist groped a customer for up to 15 minutes before spinning a phony story to police about it being part of a technique he taught himself.

A Canberra massage therapist groped a customer’s breasts for up to 15 minutes and then spun a phony story to police about his nipple fondling being part of a massage technique he had taught himself.

Timothy Van Eyle kept his job as a massage therapist at Spa Mint in Canberra despite the woman going to police the day after he repeatedly ran his hands over her exposed breasts during a full body massage in January 2019.

Van Eyle faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday, where Magistrate Jane Campbell found him guilty of committing an act of indecency without consent, dismissing much of his evidence as dishonest.

Supplied Editorial Timothy Van Eyle

The victim told the court at a hearing earlier this year Van Eyle was massaging her neck and collarbones when he said: “Do you want me to do the rest of your chest?”.

She agreed, presuming Van Eyle would massage her pectoral muscles.

She said Van Eyle went on to cup her breasts, slide his oily hands up and down her torso and play with her nipples for as long as 15 minutes, “like he was feeling me up”.

“He was definitely lingering in the area,” the woman said.

The woman rang her boyfriend immediately afterwards, and spoke to police the next day.

Van Eyle had been working at the spa for two or three weeks, and kept his job despite his boss hauling him in to tell him “even if there was consent, he is not allowed to touch the customer’s breasts”.

The spa has since been renamed to Mint n’ Co Massage.

Timothy Van Eyle groped a woman’s breasts during a massage. Picture: Craig Dunlop.

Timothy Van Eyle, is a yoga ethuisast.

The hearing was told Van Eyle’s TAFE course in massage therapy did not include anything about massaging breasts, but in an interview with police and in sworn evidence he said he was using self-taught techniques.

Ms Campbell said much of Van Eyle’s evidence was implausible.

She said it was “not the usual approach” of massage therapists to touch a woman’s breasts.

She said if the sheet which was covering the woman’s chest had slipped off, Van Eyle should have replaced it immediately.

Timothy Van Eyle said his victim was a “liar” and maintained his innocence as he left the ACT Magistrates Court. Picture: Craig Dunlop.

Ms Campbell said she was satisfied, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Van Eyle touched the woman’s breasts “in a sexual manner, deliberately and not just in passing”.

Outside court, Van Eyle, who is also an elite Bikram yoga competitor, vehemently maintained his innocence, saying “that woman is a liar”.

At one stage he placed a backpack on his head to hide from news cameras.

He returns to court for sentencing in June.