By Steve Butcher
A masseur who turned sexual predator to assault numerous female clients — aged from 16 to their 60s — had been denounced as a manipulative exploiter of vulnerable women.
A judge on Friday said that Ronald Van Dorp's 24 victims included two women who had had breast cancer, another who had just suffered a miscarriage and one who had experienced the death of a family member.
Masseur Ronald Van Dorp claimed there was no genital contact with his victims and that if there had been it was inadvertent.Credit: Lachlan Bence
In the County Court, Judge Felicity Hampel said that, for many, a massage was a "treat, a precious bit of time or opportunity to relax and indulge themselves" but these women had fallen victim to Van Dorp's "predatory, exploitative behaviour".
Judge Hampel told Van Dorp, 62, that he had sexually assaulted the women at the massage business he ran from his home in Bacchus Marsh in what should have been proper therapeutic or relaxation massage.
Taxpayers paid for up to $50,000 of massage therapy for former public servant,
A jury earlier found him guilty of 26 charges of indecent assault against 15 women and acquitted him of nine identical charges.
Van Dorp, married with two adult children, gave evidence and claimed there was no genital contact and that if there had been it was inadvertent.
After the verdicts, the prosecution discontinued some charges and Van Dorp then pleaded guilty to charges against another seven women and to charges of digital rape against two other women.
Judge Hampel sentenced him on all charges to a maximum prison term of eight years and four months and ordered him to serve a minimum of five years and 10 months.
In her sentencing remarks, Judge Hampel noted that 15 of the women were cross-examined at a committal hearing and again at trial and so their credibility and reliability were challenged.
After the verdicts, however, Van Dorp told a clinical psychologist that some offending started "by accident" and that it was "like a dare to see if they would move their hand and what they were thinking. It was like they didn't care".
Judge Hampel also said he described his behaviour as "flirtatious" and told the psychologist it was an opportunity, if available, and "you were being cheeky about it".
Given that Van Dorp told the psychologist that in the trial he saw the "pain and suffering most of the victims had been through" and did not want to make it more difficult for the remaining victims, Judge Hampel felt there was a "breathtaking hypocrisy about this".
She also felt it was hard to avoid the conclusion he was prepared to take a "gamble" on the women not being believed, but having lost he sought to minimise his "losses" by pleading guilty to the remaining charges.
People who wrote "impressive" character references for him had all expressed surprise at the offending, while Judge Hampel regarded his public persona "at odds with the sexual predator you were with your victims".
His wife, she said, had been "remarkably loyal" to him "in the face of what must be a terrible betrayal" and that she and their children continued to support him.
Judge Hampel acknowledged the assistance and professional manner in which Crown prosecutor Justin Lewis and defence counsel Paul Higham had conducted themselves in what had been a "long and difficult" case.