Ella Janneh (right) outside the Royal Courts in London on Wednesday after being awarded damages
Credit: Lucy North/PA
A woman who won a civil rape case against her sex therapist who claimed his penis could “burn up trauma” has been awarded a record £217,000 in damages.
Michael Lousada,who was a guest on ITV’s This Morning,has been ordered to pay Ella Janneh compensation after a 2016 session suddenly involved penetrative sex which triggered a “full-blown dissociative panic attack”.
In his 82-page judgment published on Wednesday,Mr Justice Jeremy Baker concluded Mr Lousada,57,used his “penis [to] energetically absorb the trauma” at a time when Ms Janneh,37,“entirely lacked capacity to agree to this taking place” as her mouth was “clamped shut,her hands clenched into fists and [she had] difficult with breathing”.
Speaking outside the High Court in London,Ms Janneh,who has waived her right to anonymity,welcomed the ruling but said she felt betrayed by the police and Crown Prosecution Service for failing to pursue a prosecution.
Catriona Rubens,Ms Janneh’s solicitor from Leigh Day,said the total award,which included £105,000 in damages and £100,000 for loss of earnings,was a record payout for a civil rape case involving a sex therapist. She called for new laws to regulate the sex therapy industry where “there is no regulatory body”.
Mr Lousada,who denied the allegations,outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London
Credit: Jonathan Brady/PA
The trial,held in April and May,heard that Ms Janneh had visited Mr Lousada’s clinic in Belsize Park in 2011 and 2012 because she suffered panic attacks during sex,something she believed stemmed from childhood sex abuse.
Although no sexual activity took place at those sessions,she returned in August 2016 for a £750 “bodywork session”.
She claimed Mr Lousada,a former investment banker and father of two,sexually assaulted her shortly after he claimed his penis was “like a laser beam” which could “burn up trauma”.
Ms Janneh,who now lives in Melbourne,Australia,reported the incident to the Metropolitan Police,but the case was dropped in May 2018.
In his judgment,the judge said that after listening to Mr Lousada’s evidence he was “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”.
While he accepted Mr Lousada,did invite Ms Janneh to say if she wanted the “treatment” to stop,“nothing else was said to indicate even the possibility” of her being penetrated.
Ms Janneh welcomed the ruling but says she feels betrayed by the police and Crown Prosecution Service for failing to pursue a prosecution
Credit: Leigh Day
On a balance of probabilities - a lower level of proof compared to a criminal trial - the judge said Mr Lousada “instructed” his client to regress to her “childhood state of being an abused child” before “kissing and essentially fondling her body,causing her to become dissociated”.
He said that by the time Ms Janneh was undergoing a full “full-blown dissociative panic attack” the therapist suggested using his “penis energetically to absorb the trauma,the claimant entirely lacked capacity to agree to this taking place”.
The judge wrote: “I am also satisfied that the type of symptoms which the claimant was suffering at that time,including her mouth being clamped shut,her hands being clenched into fists and her difficulty with breathing,would have been obvious to the defendant,and that he chose to ignore them; this being motivated by the defendant’s confidence in his own ability to heal women through what were essentially sexual practices.”
Mr Lousada,insisted Ms Janneh consented to the “legitimate” form of sex therapy and she had not disclosed that she had suffered earlier abuse.
His barristers said he accepted that penetration occurred but it “was not to have intercourse,but to accommodate the claimant’s wish to work with penetration”,adding that the session was “about release of energy”.
The court heard Mr Lousada had worked with about 1,000 clients and had had sex with 30 to 40 of them as part of their treatment.
After the ruling,Ms Janneh said her eight-year battle had achieved “the beginnings of accountability” after she achieved what police had failed to do.