Healer told to pay up after sex with clients

A disgraced North Shore healer has been ordered to pay $88,000 in damages after he duped two women into having sex with him when they came to him for counselling for previous rapes.

Geoffrey Mogridge - who claimed to be a clairvoyant, numerologist and natural health practitioner - encouraged the women to divulge personal information and manipulated the situation for his own sexual gratification, a Human Rights Review Tribunal decision said.

At one stage he even tried to force one of the women and another client to have sex with each other.

The sex, which happened in 2003 and 2004, was all unprotected and evidence suggested Mogridge was also having sex with other female customers.

Despite the decision and Mogridge being an unregistered health care provider, authorities are powerless to stop him from practising.

Mogridge told one woman an affair would help her to recover from a 1991 rape by an intruder in Europe.

Her husband also went to Mogridge for counselling and at one meeting was asked if he felt sexual arousal when talking to victims of sexual abuse such as his wife. The man replied that the question was "almost sick".

The woman told her husband about the relationship with Mogridge last year after disclosing another extramarital affair to him. The husband told the Herald yesterday that he and his wife were happy with the tribunal's decision.

"We didn't do it for the money because we don't think he can afford to pay us anyway. We just wanted to warn other women about him. "My wife is putting the whole thing behind her, she's been extremely courageous."

The second woman, who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome, initially went to Mogridge for a numerology and healing reading but was told that she needed a massage before healing. Mogridge asked her to undress before he started massaging her shoulders, kissing her and touching her breasts. The woman, who has a long history of sexual abuse, including being raped by her father for several years until she was 7, had a sexual relationship with Mogridge for seven months. In May 2004 he tried to make her and another client have sex with each other.

"She spoke of being depressed and even at times suicidal," the tribunal said.

Mogridge, who represented himself and was allowed to cross-examine the women, said his extreme techniques were designed to push the women to a point where they would say no and then feel a sense of empowerment from having refused him.

"We have no hesitation in finding that Mr Mogridge exploited both [the women] sexually," the tribunal said.

He was found to be in breach of the Health and Disability (Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights) Regulations for the abuse at the clinic at his Hillcrest home.

The husband and wife were awarded $13,000 and $25,000 respectively and the other woman $50,000.

Source: NZ Herald