Aristocrat was sexually assaulted whilst being hypnotized to help conquer a fear of flying, court hears

An aristocrat told a court that she came round from a fear of flying hypnosis session to discover that the therapist had put his hand up her skirt.

The woman said she was so shocked and embarrassed that she slapped Michael Walsh, an alternative medicine practitioner, and pushed him away during the session in her home.

She told Perth Sheriff Court it was the second time she had seen Walsh and that the first visit had ended with him telling her it looked as if she had had an orgasm.

The patient, who cannot be named for legal reasons, added: “I was hypnotised. They bring you out of it gradually. There was counting down and you gradually wake up.

"He was right next to me with his hand up my skirt, on my inner thigh, and I don't know how long it had been there. I have no idea. It was right at the top.

"I was so shocked. I can't remember the exact position he was in. I was so shocked I slapped him away. I was wearing a black Hobbs skirt, which was knee length.

"He didn't apologise or give an explanation. It was extraordinary. He acted like nothing had happened. I was shocked and embarrassed. I didn't know what to say.”

She said she told a friend and her husband but did not know whether to report it at the time, and was approached by the police about the alleged incident several years later.

Questioned by Rosemary Scott, Walsh’s solicitor, she denied making up the incident, saying: "Do you think in my professional and personal life I would jeopardise my reputation by lying to the court?”

She said she first had hypnotherapy to tackle her fear of flying in a session on "a big leather sofa" at Walsh's home and office in Blairgowrie, Perthshire.

She said that when she came round he was “slightly odd”, adding: "I was very flushed and he made some comment that it looked like I'd had an orgasm. It felt very odd but I laughed it off. I found the whole thing very embarrassing."

The trial previously heard from an international property agent that the "powerful and charismatic" hypnotist sexually assaulted her while she was a pupil at a private school in Perthshire.

The 28-year-old woman flew in from the Middle East to give evidence in the trial of the married 70-year-old.

She said she was groped by him at his practice more than a decade ago at the age of 14, when she was a disturbed and “attention seeking” teenager.

Walsh denies sexually assaulting a woman in Edinburgh, between November 1, 2001 and November 30, 2003 by placing his hand up her skirt and touching her inner thigh.

He also denies indecently assaulting a schoolgirl on a number of occasions between September 1, 2005 and September 30, 2006, by cuddling and kissing her and making her sit on his knee during hypnotherapy.

The trial continues.