Brandon massage therapist sentenced for sex assaults - Winnipeg Free Press

[massage]

BRANDON — A “predatory” former massage therapist has been sentenced in Brandon court to 50 months in prison, after pleading guilty to 11 counts of sexual assault.

Judge Patrick Sullivan addressed Michael Petrowski directly during sentencing Wednesday. Sullivan spent the bulk of his opening statement recounting the 57-year-old’s various offences.

The massage therapist was initially arrested Nov. 29, 2019, after two women told police he made inappropriate comments while touching them in a sexual manner. Six more women made allegations of similar incidents between February and August 2019. By February 2020, more than a dozen complaints had been filed against Petrowski.

He pleaded guilty to 11 counts of sexual assault in July 2021.

“These assaults all involved touching and fondling breasts of the victims in a sexual manner,” Sullivan said Wednesday. The most serious of the charges, the judge said, involved Petrowski penetrating one woman with his fingers.

“The victim impact statements detailed the shame, depression and anxiety left in the wake of the assaults,” Sullivan said.

“The ability of these victims to trust others and to feel safe and secure in their personal lives has been significantly undermined. The long-term impact of these assaults is difficult to gauge, but certainly the memory of these incidents will be with the victims for the rest of their lives.”

Petrowski used his position as a massage therapist to repeatedly take advantage of women who were “often vulnerable and in a state of undress,” the judge said.

“Mr. Petrowski’s behaviour was predatory,” Sullivan said. “This was not a one-time crime of opportunity. This was a sustained pattern of Mr. Petrowski taking advantage of his clients in a vulnerable state and, in my view, this raises his moral culpability.”

The 50-month sentence is a reduction of the 60 months called for by Crown attorney Andrew Sieklicki in March.

Petrowski’s guilty plea, which prevented the women in the case from having to go through a preliminary inquiry and a trial, played a role in that decision, the judge said.

As did Petrowski displaying genuine remorse through his admission of guilt and participation in seven hours of professional counselling, Sullivan said.

“I am of the view that the voluntary engagement of counselling services and the comments of the assessor corroborate that Mr. Petrowski’s remorse is genuine.”

Petrowski did not have a prior criminal record.

While the former massage therapist appeared in court Wednesday, he did not provide any remarks to Sullivan nor his victims.

During a previous court appearance in March, Petrowski publicly apologized, stating: “I cannot say ‘I’m sorry’ enough.”

On top of the 50-month sentence, Petrowski has been tagged with a 10-year weapons prohibition and must register as a sex offender.

— Brandon Sun