A Belle River massage therapist convicted of sexually assaulting four female clients drew the ire of a Windsor judge at a sentencing hearing Monday. Jeffrey Young, 63, pointed to some of those seated in the public gallery, referring to them as “scumbags.” Representing himself during a nearly two-hour sentencing submission, he described as “absolutely putrid” some of the things said about him during his earlier trial. The female complainants who testified were “bent on destroying me,” he said.
“You’re not going to use language like that in the courtroom,” Superior Court Justice Scott Pratt told the offender at one point. Justice Pratt told Young that Monday’s sentencing hearing was not the place to “relitigate the case.” “I’m not here to get your opinion on Crown witnesses or on how the case was proceeded against you,” the judge said. “That part of this case has finished. What I need from you today is to know what you think the sentence should be.” But Young did not tell the court what he felt was an appropriate sentence for his crimes.
The prosecution, however, called on the judge to impose a five-year penitentiary term. “A message needs to be sent about how serious the court takes this significant and egregious breach of trust,” said assistant Crown attorney Elizabeth Brown.
Last September, Justice Pratt convicted Young on seven of eight counts of sexual assault covering four of five complainants, as well as a mischief conviction related to one of the complainants. Young had caused the female victims “irreparable harm” by abusing the position of trust they had put into him as a professional massage therapist, said Brown. “That trust is broken and affected their lives then and still affects their lives today.”
Some of the allegations of sexual assault, including touching of breasts and genitalia, stem from visits made to Young more than a decade earlier, the court heard in September. The convictions followed a criminal trial that stretched across more than a year and introduced nearly 30 days of testimony, including three days with Young on the witness stand. Some of the victims had appointments with Young while he was still a registered massage therapist working at a local clinic, while others saw him post-2021 when he began offering services out of his Belle River home. While still working as a professional masseur, Young was no longer a registered massage therapist as of 2020, the judge said during his judgment in September.
“This wasn’t a one-off, it wasn’t a one-time situation,” Brown said. “You heard that many of these victims blamed themselves or at least questioned themselves about whether or not the actions of Mr. Young were even sexual assault.” One female victim said in her victim impact statement she was “haunted by vivid flashbacks of the irreversible damage (Young) has done to me” and spoke of having to endure and testify at “an exceptionally long trial.”
