{"id":48142,"date":"2025-08-06T15:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/48142\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T15:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:05:07","slug":"famous-actress-sexually-assaulted-in-terrifying-ordeal-at-soho-massage-parlour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/48142\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous actress sexually assaulted in ‘terrifying’ ordeal at Soho massage parlour"},"content":{"rendered":"

A famous singer<\/a> and actress<\/a> who was sexually assaulted during a Soho<\/a> massage<\/a> has spoken out about her \u201cdevastation\u201d, as her attacker is jailed for four years.<\/p>\n

The star – a famous face to millions – was groped by a masseur when she went to the Rupert Jade Thai massage parlour for a treatment in March 2023.<\/p>\n

She was asked to strip down to just her underwear and a towel, before masseur Sundaralingam Koodalingam subjected her to a series of sexual assaults on the treatment table.<\/p>\n

At Southwark crown court on Wednesday, Koodalingam, 36, was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of two charges of sexual assault<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The woman, whose identity is protected as a sexual offences victim, penned a powerful impact statement which was read to the court, setting out the devastating damage to her personal and professional life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe widespread anger this despicable human has caused is vast and so very real\u201d, she said, telling the court she has been \u201cfundamentally changed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job needs me to be playful, open and light\u201d, she said. \u201cCreativity is stifled by insecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I will ever get back to who I was before that day. This man has taken away my trust, my innocence, and my ability to give everyone – especially a stranger who happens to be male – the benefit of the doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

She told the court she suffers panic attacks and needed her father to accompany her on walks home from work in the aftermath of the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look over my shoulder, expecting to be a victim of further abuse for speaking out against him\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA grown-ass woman in her 30s… feeling unsafe to walk home alone from work due to one pathetic man is unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she needed therapy for anger issues, and detailed an incident when she \u201cfelt rage\u201d at a stranger who winked and smiled at her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow dare you assume I wanted this attention\u201d, she said. \u201cNo one wants this attention, you have no idea what effect you are having on someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court heard Koodalingam, who comes from the Maldives, moved to the UK in 2021 with his visa sponsored by a company based in the Cotswolds.<\/p>\n

The attack happened on March 29, 2023, when the victim visited the massage parlour where he worked for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was naked but for her underwear and a towel\u201d, said Recorder Jeremy Brier, setting out how Koodalingam touched the woman intimately and groped her breasts and nipples.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a frightening and terrifying ordeal\u201d, he said. \u201cIt was a violation.\u201d<\/p>\n

At trial, Koodalingam claimed the actress had invented the sexual assaults, and even at sentence he continued to protest his innocence.<\/p>\n

The victim said she is \u201cangry this man has taken anything from me at all, triumphant to say it is over, devastated it happen to me\u201d, and expressed satisfaction at \u201ctaking one more disgusting predator off the street\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTens if not hundreds of women are now safe\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

The star also detailed her struggles with how she initially responded to the attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have struggled with knowing who I was\u201d, she said. \u201cI always saw myself as someone who would stand up to fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had conversations like that so many times. I was so sure I would stand up, call out bad behaviour, and get the hell out, but I didn\u2019t, and I really struggled with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she initially joked with a friend about the incident, and now recognises her response was \u201chuman, vulnerable, and honest\u201d and she \u201cdid absolutely nothing wrong that day\u201d.<\/p>\n

And she added her horror at one person\u2019s reaction to news of the attacks, saying to her: \u201cThat\u2019s not too bad, at least he didn\u2019t rape you\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine the sentence \u2018at least he didn\u2019t rape you\u2019 being a silver lining.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koodalingam, of Ruskin Avenue in Manor Park, east London, was convicted by a jury of sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault.<\/p>\n

His barrister, Ben Hargreaves, told the judge that Koodalingam faces an \u201cespecially hard\u201d time in Britain\u2019s \u201cdecrepit\u201d prison system, as English is not his first language and he has never been behind bars before.<\/p>\n

He has been on bail during legal proceedings, and was told he must serve two thirds of the four-year jail term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A famous singer and actress who was sexually assaulted during a Soho massage has spoken out about her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,26919,50,26917,26920,26921,26918,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-48142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-massage-parlour","tag-news","tag-sexual-assaults","tag-sexual-offences","tag-southwark-crown-court","tag-sundaralingam-koodalingam","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}