A former massage therapist from Dartmouth, N.S., has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting four of his clients.
Trevor Jordan Stevens admitted to sexually assaulting the women between 2013 and 2019 during an appearance in Dartmouth provincial court on Monday.
Crown prosecutor Katie Lovett confirmed the sexual assaults happened during massage therapy appointments.
Stevens assaulted the first victim in 2013, the second in 2016, and the third and fourth between 2017 and 2019.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in Dartmouth provincial court on May 30.
Previous conviction
Stevens was previously convicted of sexual assault in a separate case. In November 2021, he was sentenced to four years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman he knew at his home in Dartmouth in late 2012 or early 2013.
During the violent assault, Stevens slapped the victim, pushed her on a couch and covered her mouth, nose and throat to the extent that she had difficulty breathing.
Although he was charged in 2018, he was able to continue practising massage therapy until May 2021, when his membership with the Massage Therapists’ Association of Nova Scotia was suspended.
Massage therapy is an unregulated industry in Nova Scotia and the association has previously said there was little it could do to keep him from practising after he was charged.
The woman Stevens assaulted, who spoke with Global News shortly after his sentencing, is calling for massage therapy to be regulated to protect vulnerable clients.
“There’s no reason that he should be allowed to continue to practise while he was charged for these crimes,” the woman, who was not one of his clients, said at the time.
In December 2021, the provincial Department of Health and Wellness said it was reviewing a submission from massage therapy associations regarding self-regulation.
“It’s important to note that self-regulation would require further legislation, which would take time,” said spokesperson Marla MacInnis.
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