Warning: This story contains disturbing details. Discretion is advised.
A former massage therapist from Dartmouth, N.S., has been sentenced to a total of six years in prison for sexually assaulting four of his clients.
In March, Trevor Jordan Stevens, 35, admitted to sexually assaulting the women during massage therapy appointments between 2013 and 2019.
Stevens assaulted the first victim in 2013, the second in 2016, and the third and fourth between 2017 and 2019.
During his sentencing hearing Monday, Chief Judge Pamela Williams spoke directly to the victims, saying she wished she had the power and authority to assist them in their rehabilitation.
“It certainly has taken a great deal of courage – and perhaps some pain – in having to, in some ways, relive these events,” she said.
“No sentence can adequately compensate you or return you to a place where you were prior to your involvement with Mr. Stevens, but hopefully this will provide some closure for you.”
The court heard that at some points, Stevens would tell the victims that the assaults he committed was part of their treatment.
The judge said there was “a lack of insight on the part of Mr. Stevens – a real lack of insight.”
“This was not helping people. And perhaps it was a means of you being able to justify your actions to yourself, Mr. Stevens, but you had considerable authority and power over these victims, and you used that position to manipulate and to groom,” said Williams.
“And to suggest that you were just helping them and trying to heal them, is, at best, nonsensical and ludicrous.”
Stevens has previously been convicted in a separate sexual assault case and is currently serving a four-year sentence. His new sentence will be served consecutively.
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The six-year sentence came from a joint recommendation from the Crown and Stevens’ lawyer. He will serve six months each for the first and second charges, two years for the third charge and three years for the fourth.
Stevens will also be on the sex offender registry for the rest of his life, is subject to a firearms prohibition for the next 10 years, and is not allowed to have contact with the victims during his sentence.
‘A position of power and trust is never an invitation to harm someone’
Stevens assaulted the first victim on January 9, 2013, while he was working as a registered massage therapist at Kinesis Health Associates in Dartmouth.
According to a statement of facts read during his sentencing hearing, during the course of the massage appointment, he sat on the table next to the victim, put his hand on hers and moved it to his lap, where she felt a “bulge.”
The victim “waited for the treatment to end,” left, and never came back.
In her impact statement, the victim said following the assault, she had difficulty sleeping and eating, and experienced “horrible” flashbacks, panic attacks, anxiety and intrusive thoughts.
She also became distrustful of men, especially strangers.
“I no longer felt safe and worried I would be taken advantage of again,” she said, adding that she also suffered from headaches and stomach pain. She was later diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer.
The victim said she felt “terrified” to come forward and feared nobody would believe her, but felt the need to after reading about his previous sexual assault case in the media.
“A position of power and trust is never an invitation to harm someone,” the victim impact statement said. “Women and patients deserve to feel safe at all times. It was time to take our power and voices back and protect others from being victimized.”
The second victim was a client of Kinesis Health Associates and was treated by Stevens a total of nine times.
At first, the court heard, everything seemed “normal,” but at one point he remarked to her that it was difficult for male massage therapists to treat female clients due to “fear of accusation.”
During his third appointment, he focused his treatment on her abdomen area – unrelated to the part of her body that needed treatment.
On the woman’s last appointment, which took place on April 4, 2016, she was lying face-down on the massage table, covered by a sheet and wearing only her underwear.
Stevens removed the sheet and her underwear and massaged her bare buttocks with his hands, without telling her what he was doing or asking for consent.
The statement of facts said the woman was “frozen” and laid in shock, unable to say or do anything. She did not jump up or move because she did not want to expose her breasts.
“(She) said she felt horrible after the event and sat in her car for approximately 10 minutes, unsure of what to do,” said the statement of facts, read aloud Monday by Crown attorney Katie Lovett.
“She was too embarrassed to speak to the clinic about what happened.”
The woman never saw Stevens for treatment again.
‘Insidious’ process
Stevens assaulted the third victim, who he treated over the course of 31 months, on Feb. 28, 2017, and Oct. 26, 2019. She attended four appointments at Kinesis Health Associates before he moved his practice to the basement of his home in Dartmouth.
According to the statement of facts, Stevens told her he left Kinesis because he “did not get along with his boss.”
During her appointments, at times he grazed her nipples while doing breast massages and kissed her without her consent.
He also began using a folding knife during some of the appointments, running it along her body and instructing her to tell him that it was a “nice knife.” He also made sexual comments to her.
His behaviour escalated to slapping and choking her, and at one point he penetrated her vagina with his fingers, causing her to experience “sharp pain” in the days that followed.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said the abuse started at “one of the lowest parts of my life, physically and mentally.”
She said the process was “insidious,” as the appointments began as non-threatening and escalated over time.
“Somehow, along the way, everything gets normalized. What started as treatment turned into my body being repeatedly being put at risk,” she said.
“What he did is especially scary considering the power imbalance between massage therapists and clients. I trusted him and … he took advantage of that.”
Similarly, the fourth victim saw Stevens for a total of 55 times over the course of 26 months. He assaulted her on July 10, 2017, and Oct. 11, 2019, and at the time of these offences he was conducting business out of the basement of his home.
During the appointments, court heard, he “regularly” asked her about her sex life. He also asked her if she used sex toys, which left her feeling “humiliated.”
During one appointment, he placed his hand on her pelvic area and asked her about details about her sexual assault history, and told her he could tell she had “rape trauma.”
“Mr. Stevens would massage (her) lower pelvic region, right above her vagina,” the statement said. “He told (her) he was trying to massage her uterus to simulate an orgasm, and that she needed this treatment … to make the pain go away.”
Stevens also would “often” pull her hair and climb on top of the massage table while performing full-frontal breast massages.
When the victim talked to him about his practices, he told her that it was a “special blend” of osteopathy and massage therapy.
In an interview following the sentencing, Lovett, the Crown attorney, said Stevens’ abuse of power was an aggravating factor.
“They all were seeing Mr. Stevens for treatment and trusted that he was a professional medical person within the community,” she said.
“Because he took advantage of the position that he held as a medical professional, he did breach that position of trust in relation to all four of those victims.”
Previous conviction
Stevens has already been convicted of sexual assault in a separate case. In November 2021, he was sentenced to four years in prison for raping 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, has called 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.
On Monday, Greg MacDonald, the executive director of the Massage Therapists’ Association of Nova Scotia, said the association continues to work with the Department of Health and Wellness to regulate the industry.
Survivors of sexual violence in Nova Scotia can contact the Sexual Assault and Harassment Phone Line at (902) 425-1066 for support, 24-7. The phone line is operated by the Dalhousie Student Union. They can also contact the Legal Advice for Sexual Assault Survivors program by calling 211 to get free legal advice.
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