Former councillor faces jail over sexual assaults (From Croydon Guardian)

Former Waddon ward member guilty of three sexual assaults

9:00am Saturday 10th December 2011 in Local news By Nick Hitchens

Graham Dare was a Waddon councillor for four years

Former Waddon councillor and celebrity spiritual healer Graham Dare faces jail after ordering a woman needing help with migraines to strip naked and fondling her on three occasions.

Dare, 57, a Conservative councillor in Waddon between 1998 and 2002 before defecting to the Liberal Democrats, was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault on Monday December 5 at Blackfriars Crown Court.

Boasting a list of celebrity clients including Eastenders star Tamzin Outhwaite and TV presenter's Melinda Messenger, Kate Thornton and Michaela Strachan, Dare, of Taymount Rise, Forest Hill committed the offences against a 31-year-old Japanese student in September last year.

The court heard he offererd to heal her free of charge until her headaches were healed convinced his client to remove her clothes at three separate sessions, touching her genitals and at one point asking her to touch his body with her mouth.

Heather Stangoe, prosecuting, said: “It is not a crime to trust someone. What is a crime is to take advantage of someone's trust and naivety and to abuse it for your sexual pleasure.”

The victim told the jury: “I didn't like what he was doing he wasn't charging me and I didn't want to offend him."

On the final occasion, on September 20, she was allowed to keep her knickers on because she was on her period.

She said: "He explained if he uses his mouth then the effect would be better.

“He started on my legs. I felt it was really really strange.

“I didn't want the same treatment with his mouth. I hated it. So I said I'd do the healing to him."

Dare stripped naked with nothing but a towel over his groin, and she massaged his arms and legs.

She said: “Then I saw something between his legs the towel wasn't so big.

“I realised he was masturbating.”

Dare, who denied the charges and has been a spiritualist for over a decade insisted he was only trying to help the woman.

He said he could guess several reasons why the woman might lie, including the possibility she was a member of Japanese mafia cults.

He said a residue the woman noticed on his leg could have been associated with a prostate problem.

Judge Aidan Marron QC granted him bail until January 6 when he will be sentenced.

He said: “As a matter of mercy I will grant the defendant bail. I don't want him to get any ideas custody isn't at the vanguard of my thoughts.”