Chinese Medicine Expert Denies Fondling Female Back Patient's Breasts

Hui Li: Denies Claims

A traditional Chinese medicine expert, treating a woman's backache with massages and reflexology at a South Kensington clinic, groped her breasts, a jury heard today.

Dr. Hui Li, 54, had taken over the £40-an-hour sessions at the Natural Health Centre, Old Brompton Road, where the woman, aged in her thirties, sought help for a protruding disc.

As usual she had stripped down to her knickers and a full-length towel was protecting her modesty when the defendant suggested an abdominal massage to relieve tension.

"I said yes and he snatched the towel off," she told the Isleworth Crown Court jury. "He was staring at me, staring at my breasts.

"I covered my breasts with my hands and he said: 'Relax, I'm a doctor' and held my wrists and moved my hands down.

"Then he grabbed my nipples, they were between his fingers, each hand on each breast and started moving his hands in a circular motion.

"There was some force and he was staring like he wanted to touch me. He then stroked my back as I sat up and then stroked my cheek and said: 'You're beautiful.'

"I was so shocked and covered myself with the towel and he kept staring at me until I left the room. I trusted him as a doctor."

She continued her course of treatment with a female practitioner and only reported Li when she bumped into him at the clinic four months later.

"He was sneering at me and waved in a patronising way as if to say: 'I know what I did and got away with it.'

"I did not have the courage to speak up about it, but when he waved at me I got the anger and the courage."

Li says the woman made up the allegations after receiving an "accupressure" massage between the breasts and a head massage.

The clinic's manager told the jury Li also administers acupuncture and prescribes Chinese remedies.

He said the defendant has little command of english and UK customs and does tell women they are "beautiful" in an attempt to develop "rapport."

Li, of Valiant House, Plevna Street, Docklands, has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault on April 11, 2014.

Trial continues……………