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<\/p>\nA former massage therapist has been sent to prison for sexually touching two clients in regional Victoria.<\/p>\n
Warning: This article includes descriptions of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n
Tomey Mathew, 33, had no qualifications for his role as a massage therapist and was learning on the job at a business in Mildura, north-west Victoria, in 2025.<\/p>\n
His former employer told the Mildura Magistrates’ Court that, during his training, Mathew had been told that touching women in private places was not permitted.<\/p>\n
The court heard that, during his time in the industry, Mathew estimated he massaged five women.<\/p>\n
Three of these women might have been staff.<\/p>\n
The two that were not colleagues went to police after their massages to lodge sexual assault claims against him.<\/p>\n
Touching ‘not accidental’<\/p>\n
The first victim went to Massage Borneo 1 in Langtree Mall on March 13, 2025 for a 45-minute oil massage.<\/p>\n
Mathew was called, took payment and began the massage.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tomey Mathew massaged five women during his five months at the business. (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n
The court heard everything seemed normal as he massaged the woman’s legs, arms, feet, shoulders and head.<\/p>\n
The victim then recalled being unable to speak and freezing in fear as Mathew reached under a towel covering her breasts and grabbed at her.<\/p>\n
The court heard he was asked to stop but repeated the act soon after as he leaned over her from behind her head.<\/p>\n
The second victim had booked a 30-minute neck massage which lasted close to an hour on April 5, 2025.<\/p>\n
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Tomey Mathew no longer works at Massage Borneo 1, where the offending took place. (ABC News: Wade Stephens)<\/p>\n
She was also touched under the towel by Mathew, who circled her breasts twice before he was told to stop and left the room.<\/p>\n
Mathew denied touching the breasts of either woman, either intentionally or accidentally.<\/p>\n
The court heard that, due to the manner of the touching and the duration, the conduct could not be explained as an accident.<\/p>\n
Profound and far-reaching impact<\/p>\n
Victim impact statements from both women were read in court.<\/p>\n
The first victim said, since the incident, she had become hyperaware of consent and boundaries and had experienced anxiety attacks.<\/p>\n
If you or anyone you know needs help:Police \u2013 000 (triple-zero)1800 Respect National Helpline<\/a>: 1800 737 732Lifeline<\/a>: 13 11 14National Survivors Foundation<\/a>: 1300 12 44 33Men’s Referral Service<\/a>: 1300 766 491Women’s Crisis Line<\/a>: 1800 811 811Full Stop Australia<\/a>: 1800 385 578Rainbow Sexual, Domestic and Family Violence Helpline: 1800 497 212<\/p>\n She said she experienced ghost sensations and flashbacks of the incident.<\/p>\n The second victim said intimacy felt different and unsettling and she could not avoid a persistent uneasy feeling.<\/p>\n Defence lawyer Robert Thyssen argued there was no evidence of sexual gratification by Mathew in either act.<\/p>\n He said the offences were “of fleeting nature” due to Mathew’s minimal experience and training.<\/p>\n Magistrate Greg Thomas said he did not agree with the word fleeting, as Mathew knew he was not supposed to touch the women’s breasts.<\/p>\n “The women were in a very vulnerable position. There is an element of breach of trust,” he said.Prosecutors push for jail term<\/p>\n Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Jackie Lowe argued that anything less than imprisonment would be manifestly inadequate.<\/p>\n She said the victims had expressed lifelong implications from the offending and were exposed to more trauma by giving evidence in court.<\/p>\n She also argued Mathew was not remorseful, as he contested the charges, and said “regret post-conviction and remorse are two different things”.<\/p>\n Tomey Mathew will spend the next five months behind bars. (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n Mr Thyssen said the complainants were not at risk of being victims of reoffending, as Mathew had moved to Queensland to work as kitchen hand in an aged care facility.<\/p>\n He described Mathew as hard working in a sector where staff were hard to obtain and argued jail should be a last resort.<\/p>\n But Magistrate Thomas said, even if a community corrections order was available, he did not consider it an adequate sentence.<\/p>\n “Because of the serious nature of offending, the breach of trust involved and lack of remorse, no other disposition other than a term of imprisonment is appropriate,” Magistrate Thomas said.<\/p>\n He sentenced Mathew to five months in jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former massage therapist has been sent to prison for sexually touching two clients in regional Victoria. Warning:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,12739,95693,1712,136999],"class_list":["post-84079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-massage-therapist","tag-mildura-magistrates-court","tag-sexual-assault","tag-tomey-mathew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c005bb7e8891112a576afd62970fca83.jpeg\")
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