There are calls for stricter regulation of the massage industry after one therapist was able to keep practicing after indecently assaulting his clients. In a case revealed to the ABC, the massage therapist was able to keep working even after being reported to police and having his provider number suspended by the industry body. And dad shows the issue could be widespread.
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00:00My joy has gone, disappeared like the pastel tones out of a watercolour.
00:10Maybe one day, I'll remember what it meant to be happy.
00:16Sarah Eccles-Smith uses poetry to express her feelings.
00:22After she was sexually abused by her massage therapist in 2020.
00:27It was a prize she won at the gym that changed her life forever.
00:31It was a choice of a massage voucher with him or a meat tray through a local butcher.
00:37In hindsight, I probably should have taken the meat tray.
00:41Miss Eccles-Smith says the massage therapist, Jason Hagen, worked from a room in his house
00:46where he indecently assaulted her after several visits.
00:50It left her with anxiety, depression and some unhealthy coping mechanisms.
00:56You know, relationships, you know, break-up or friendships dissipate because you've put
01:00up walls and blocked people out.
01:09Miss Eccles-Smith sought solace in cooking, but she says it was hard to reconcile why
01:13Hagen wasn't charged for more than a year after her complaint.
01:18Police told the ABC the criteria for an arrest hadn't been met.
01:23Police instead reported him to industry representative body Massage and Myotherapy Australia, which
01:29suspended his healthcare provider number.
01:32But it wasn't reported to the Health and Community Services Complaints Commission at the time,
01:37the group that can ban him from practising.
01:39Those decisions meant Hagen wasn't stopped and the abuse continued.
01:43Since questioning by the ABC, South Australian police have launched an inquiry and say they
01:49acknowledge the harm caused to a number of victims in this case.
01:54One of those victims was Sally Lumsden.
01:58She was abused just over a year after Miss Eccles-Smith went to police.
02:03If no one else had ever come forward, I don't know that I ever would, I would have just
02:06packed it away at the back of my brain and tried to forget about it.
02:10She says she feared the worst case scenario during the abuse.
02:14In all, nine women came forward and Hagen was jailed for six years in October.
02:25The massage industry is self-regulated in Australia and some states can ban practitioners.
02:31There were dozens of bans in place for massage therapists last year, but not all the reasons
02:36are listed and they could still work in the Northern Territory or Tasmania if banned in
02:41another state.
02:42If it was regulated the same way a doctor was and it was publicised more predominantly,
02:47the other women wouldn't have been assaulted.
02:50Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says an independent review will consider the process
02:54of regulating other professions, such as massage therapy.
03:00For survivors, it's hoped a better regulated massage industry will help stamp out other
03:05predators.