{"id":61663,"date":"2026-06-12T15:55:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/61663\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:55:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:55:21","slug":"charlatan-psychic-sexually-assaulted-tourist-at-llandudno-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/61663\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Charlatan’ psychic sexually assaulted tourist at Llandudno shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

A “charlatan” psychic who sexually assaulted two women has been jailed for four years and five months. John Starkey was sentenced at Caernarfon<\/a> Crown Court today (Friday).<\/p>\n

Starkey, 74, of Rhodfa’r Grug, Upper Colwyn Bay<\/a>, claimed to be an “internationally renowned clairvoyant” with 40 years of experience. But he was unmasked as a sex offender after admitting charges of sexual assault by penetration and two counts of sexual assault.<\/p>\n

He had claimed to have appeared on a string of major TV and radio shows. However Judge Nicola Jones denounced him as a “complete charlatan” and condemned his actions as a clear breach of trust.<\/p>\n

Caernarfon Crown Court heard Starkey used his psychic sessions as a cover to launch the attacks.<\/p>\n

He was first investigated by police after a woman reported being sexually assaulted by him in Wolverhampton in 2018.<\/p>\n

Several months later, he lured the same victim to a London hotel room under the false pretence that other clients would be there.<\/p>\n

Once isolated, he told her to strip naked and assaulted her, falsely claiming it was a twisted “initiation” for “spiritual cleansing”.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Starkey<\/p>\n

The second victim was assaulted in October 2022 while on holiday in Llandudno<\/a>, said Elen Owen, who was prosecuting. The young woman, who had an interest in clairvoyance, went to a shop where Starkey was working for a consultation.<\/p>\n

Starkey told her to undress, and then touched her sexually. Following the assault, Starkey was arrested by police.<\/p>\n

In mitigation Robert Fitt, who was defending, said Starkey was of previous good character and suffered from severe health problems, with a remaining life expectancy of three to five years. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter<\/a> sent twice daily to your inbox<\/p>\n

This afternoon Judge Nicola Jones sentenced Starkey to four years and five months in prison for his crimes. He will serve half in custody and the rest on licence.<\/p>\n

She said he was already subject to notification requirments, from the date of his plea and these would now be indefinite. Restraining orders from contacting the victims were also made. He must also pay a statutory surcharge.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the 2022 assault Judge Jones said: “There was a clear abuse of trust. She went to you as a professional, for a clairvoyant consultation and clearly relied upon your expertise and knowledge.” You can sign up for all the latest court stories here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A “charlatan” psychic who sexually assaulted two women has been jailed for four years and five months. John…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[10762,141,9954,5,6],"class_list":["post-61663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-colwyn-bay","tag-courts","tag-llandudno","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116737954596855638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}