A celebrity sex coach who lost a civil trial over claims he raped his patient opened a clinic with one of the largest private healthcare providers in the UK just months before the incident, court documents claim.
TV personality Mike Lousada will be forced to pay more than £200,000 in damages to Ella Janneh, a former patient of his, after courts found he regressed her into a childlike state before carrying out several sexual acts including penetration without consent in 2016.
Lousada is a prominent celebrity sex therapist who has been featured on national TV programmes such as This Morning, in major press outlets, in videos for Durex and referenced in the book of feminist author Naomi Wolf.
According to evidence submitted to the High Court, Lousada also had connections with Spire Healthcare – one of the largest private healthcare hospital providers in the UK.
In a statement to the court, he said he had been approached by Spire Healthcare and opened a sexual wellness clinic in their Southampton Hospital in the same year he assaulted Ms Janneh.
The statement said: “In 2016 I was approached by Spire Southampton Hospital to set up a sexual wellness clinic which I duly went on to do. Formal protocols were put in place for this work and approved by the hospital administration. Although the protocols in place specifically relate to the work undertaken at the sexual wellness clinic.”
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Lousada did not make further statements on the nature of his work at the clinic.
However, in a further statement to the court for the claimant Ella Janneh, Lousada’s ex-wife Louise Manazati said both she and Lousada presented to Spire Healthcare their approach called “psychosexual somatic therapy” (PST). Her statement said PST at the time did “not include sexual touching or sexual penetration”.
She said their approach was presented to Spire Healthcare, and documents which showed the presentation were disclosed as evidence to the court.
Ms Janneh contacted Lousada in 2016 seeking therapy for panic attacks she suffered during consensual sexual acts. She told him she had been a victim of childhood sexual abuse.
In Ms Manazati’s statement to the court she said: “In our PST presentation to the Spire, we explained that PST was a combined mind-body approach for sexual wellness. We confirmed that we could help clients who had suffered shock or trauma, including sexual abuse.”
Lousada allegedly told Spire Healthcare the techniques used in their therapy involved osteopathy and “myofascial release” which is lymphatic massage. A safety protocol was also presented to Spire, according to the statement.
According to Ms Manazati, the project with Spire Hospital did not go ahead as it was thought of as too “alternative”. However, Lousada’s website, taken down since the judgment on Wednesday, said: “In early 2016 Mike and his team opened the UK’s first sexual wellness Clinic in a private hospital at Spire Southampton Hospital.”
A separate Facebook post from Spire Healthcare from February 2016, now taken down, appears to link Lousada with the clinic.
Leigh Day solicitor Catriona Rubens said: “The civil court heard Mike Lousada discuss his psychosexual somatics clinic at the Spire Hospital, and the patient safety protocols he developed for the use of touch with patients there. Given the judge’s findings about Mr Lousada’s practice and his disregard for ethical codes, it is right that questions are asked of the due diligence conducted by healthcare providers who worked with Mr Lousada.
“Because there is no compulsory regulation for therapists in the UK, Mr Lousada was not required to be registered with an outside regulator. It was therefore even more imperative that any healthcare provider seeking to work with him carefully scrutinised the ethics and safety of his practice, particularly if it involved touching patients.
“The fact that a form of therapy is viewed as more “alternative” does not alter the inherent power a therapist wields over their patient. There must be strict oversight by hospitals and clinics to ensure that power cannot be abused.”
Spire Healthcare was contacted by The Independent several times to comment on the court claims Mike Lousada worked at its Southampton Clinic. However, it did not respond to questions.
