An unqualified massage therapist who sexually abused more than 60 women left his victims with “trauma” and “severe psychological harm”, a court has heard.<\/p>\n
Sumit Satish Rastogi, 39, appeared in South Australia’s District Court on Friday where he heard victim impact statements from two more victims of his sexual abuse between October 2021 and July 2022 at a massage business in Glenelg, in Adelaide’s west.<\/p>\n
Rastogi, who moved to Adelaide from Delhi in 2011, previously pleaded guilty to 55 counts of indecent filming and 42 counts of aggravated indecent assault.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n
One victim today told the court she had been on her honeymoon at the time of the offending.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rastogi, pictured here in 2023, does not expect anyone to forgive him, his lawyer said. (ABC News: Shari Hams)<\/p>\n
“You turned what should have been one of the happiest weekends [of] my life into a haunting memory that I can’t erase,” she said.<\/p>\n
“A moment that should have been filled with celebration and love has been contaminated by the trauma that you have inflicted.”<\/p>\n
The victim told the court of her ongoing suffering through tears.<\/p>\n
“I no longer feel safe receiving care from male professionals \u2014 doctors, physiotherapists or even midwives \u2014 regardless of their qualification or intentions. That is how deep your betrayal runs,” she said.<\/p>\n
“You didn’t just assault my body and my mental health, but you fractured my sense of safety, my ability to trust, and even the openness in my marriage.<\/p>\n
“To this day, years later, my husband does not know the full extent of what happened because I can’t bring myself to tell him. I imagine the look on his face, the horror and the sorrow, and it makes me sick.”<\/p>\n
‘Relentless delays’ in sentencing, victim says<\/p>\n
Another victim outlined how the lengthy legal proceedings and delays throughout had “steadily eroded” her strength.<\/p>\n
“The relentless delays have compounded the harm and prolonged the trauma that this offender created,” she said.<\/p>\n
“These delays kept me and other victims trapped in suspended trauma, replicate power dynamics used to violate us, and allow offenders’ psychological dominance to continue long after the assaults themselves.”<\/p>\n
The victim was delivering a second impact statement and said it had been 1,271 days since the assault, and 132 days since her first statement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rastogi appeared in South Australia’s District Court. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n
She said she was not suggesting any wrongdoing of the court, but rather criticising the process, acknowledging she had “seen [the judge’s] own frustration firsthand”.<\/p>\n
“The legal process has kept me from beginning the trauma therapy I urgently need,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been unable to work, unable to rebuild my life and unable to move forward in any meaningful way.<\/p>\n
“My faith in the justice system has been shattered.”<\/p>\n
She added that she did not accept Rastogi’s apology or believe he was remorseful.<\/p>\n
“Genuine remorse would look like pleading guilty at the beginning,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I cannot adequately express how urgently I need this to end. I need the chance to begin healing and I need the chance to reclaim my life and rebuild my family.”<\/p>\n
Rastogi ‘knows he’s getting a jail sentence’<\/p>\n
Barrister Adam Richards, for Rastogi, said his client had requested he “reiterate his apology”.<\/p>\n
“He said just now that he can’t forgive himself and he expects no-one else to forgive him,” Mr Richards said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He knows he’s getting a jail sentence and he hopes that brings some peace to the complainants in this manner.”<\/p>\n
Mr Richards added that while the offending was over a period of about 10 months, it occurred “in a lifetime where he did not offend”.<\/p>\n
The court previously heard that a psychologist’s report stated Rastogi possibly suffered from voyeuristic disorder, which is when a person experiences sexual arousal from watching unsuspecting people without clothes on.<\/p>\n
The matter was adjourned to December 22 so the defence could gather extra materials pertaining to the possible voyeuristic disorder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An unqualified massage therapist who sexually abused more than 60 women left his victims with “trauma” and “severe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7814,64,63,190053,190054,19541,85,190052,40948],"class_list":{"0":"post-342627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-abuse","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-massage-therapist","12":"tag-rastogi","13":"tag-sexual-abuse","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sumit-satish-rastogi","16":"tag-therapist"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}