Lyon: eight years in prison for a therapist accused of rape and already sentenced
Jorge Arias, 51, already convicted of several rapes and sexual assaults, was sentenced to eight years in prison on Tuesday by the Rhone Assize Court for the violation of another victim.
This sentence is accompanied by a “partial confusion” of six years with the previous sentence of twelve years’ imprisonment imposed for the other rapes.
The court also ordered a five-year socio-judicial follow-up and requested a medico-judicial expertise in order to assess the victim’s damage. The hearing, which opened on Monday, was held behind closed doors.
A psychological hold
The young woman, now 27, had filed a complaint in May 2018 for facts dating back to the summer of 2014, after having read in the local press accounts of the first trial of Jorge Arias for similar facts, denounced by six of his patients, victims of his actions between 2013 and 2015.
The suspect had explained to the investigators that the practitioner, whom she consulted as an osteopath in her office in the 9th arrondissement of Lyon, had encouraged her to follow “a new method” which in fact resulted in acts sexual.
The young woman reported a psychological grip in a medical context when she was experiencing personal difficulties.
“He has acknowledged all the facts and that’s what he will say at this trial”, had for his part declared the defense lawyer, Me Samir Driss, before the opening of the trial.
Converted into a naturopath
Native of Colombia, Jorge Arias came to France as a dancer, before teaching this discipline. At the age of 30, he retrained as a naturopath claiming to have trained in Colombia.
On April 27, 2018, the Rhône Assize Court had already sentenced him to twelve years of criminal imprisonment for rape and sexual assault on six women, also during therapy sessions.
A psychiatric report evokes the “psychic functioning of a perverse nature where his position of professional authority serves his hold on the victim revealed as vulnerable”. The accused agreed to have “practiced without any ethical framework by seizing the vulnerability of his clientele to assume his personal sexual urges”, according to this expert.