A woman who claimed she was raped by a therapist who said penetration could help ease her trauma has been awarded more than £200,000 in damages in a high court ruling after she sued him over the alleged assaults.
Ella Janneh, 37, a victim of childhood sexual abuse who waived her right to anonymity, brought a claim against Michael Lousada, described as a “self-styled psychosexual Somatics practitioner”, over a therapy session involving sexual penetration at his clinic in Belsize Park, north London, in August 2016.
Lawyers for Janneh, told the court she suffered a panic attack during the session and “did not consent to the sexual acts”.
Lousada, who had been an internationally renowned sex therapist and had appeared as a guest on the TV show This Morning, denied the allegations, claiming that the sexual activity was consensual and part of “legitimate” therapeutic activity.
Janneh reported the alleged rape to police after it happened and told a friend “I think I just got raped” but, in 2018, the CPS decided not to proceed with a criminal prosecution. So Janneh launched a civil claim against Lousada for personal injury and negligence.
Criminal and civil cases require different standards of proof, criminal prosecutions requiring the higher standard of “beyond reasonable doubt”, while civil cases are based on “the balance of probabilities”.
In his judgment on Wednesday, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker found that Janneh became dissociative when asked to regress to her childhood state where she was abused.
“Such that when the defendant suggested that he would use his penis to absorb the trauma, the defendant not having asked for consent to penetrate her with his fingers, the claimant lacked capacity to consent to being penetrated with his penis.”
He ruled that Janneh should be paid at least £217,000 in damages.
The trial heard that Janneh, 37, first visited Lousada in 2011 and again in 2012 after suffering panic symptoms during consensual sex, which she believed stemmed from abuse as a child. No sexual activity took place during the first two sessions.
Janneh’s barrister, Nina Ross, said she returned in 2016 for a “body work” session costing £750 which she believed was similar to a physiotherapy session, coupled with talking therapy.
Janneh told the court she “never, ever, ever” would have asked Lousada to penetrate her during the session.
In court documents, she said that Lousada told her: “His penis was, ‘like a laser beam’ and that it could ‘burn up trauma’, and that he should use his penis to absorb the trauma.” The court heard he did not wear a condom.
She claimed the incident caused her to suffer a panic attack, leaving her unable to communicate and “incapable of providing valid and informed consent”.
In his evidence, Lousada admitted penetration occurred but said he repeatedly received “clear verbal consent” for his actions. The court heard that when challenged by his ex-wife Louise Mazanti about his use of sexual penetration with clients he said his sexual work comprised his “spiritual gifts” and was an “expression of his soul”.
Lousada said he made notes after the session where the alleged rape took place saying Jenneh was making “a healthy and voluntary sexual response” and left the session feeling “empowered and optimistic”.
However, the court heard evidence that she developed complex PTSD after the alleged incident, felt suicidal, began drinking alcohol excessively and even felt constrained to terminate a pregnancy because of her poor mental health.
“I am satisfied that the scale of his confidence in his own abilities was such that his perception of reality became clouded by his sense of self-worth,” the judge said in his ruling.
“I am feeling everything all at once,” Ella Janneh said after the judgment. “I’m incredibly proud of myself, first and foremost that I got here. I have put in so much work.”
But, she added: “I’m also in grief for what it means to have given up the best part of a decade to hold a man accountable.”
“I was left wanting to die,” she said. “I was left suicidal. I was left with the harm that I’ve still never recovered from, so there’s grief also about an eight-year fight, and that’s eight years that I’ll never back.”
Janneh said that although her fight for justice had been long, she hoped that the judgment “can be meaningful for other victims”.
“I hope they can take some kind of encouragement from this,” she said, “and not just because I won, but in that it is meaningful to fight, it is meaningful to speak out.”
Janneh also said she felt “completely betrayed by the police and CPS” after her original criminal complaint was not taken forward, but she said: “It was really important for me to finally get in that court room, to do what I needed to do.”
Catriona Rubens, Janneh’s solicitor from Leigh Day, said: “This judgment is a resounding victory for my client Ella Janneh, who has fought tirelessly to seek justice.
“Ella has faced many battles since the session on 18 August 2016: with the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, and now against Mr Lousada directly through the civil claim. She has been unable to speak freely until now, after a full civil trial in open court.”
