Arthur Cunningham, 69, and his wife Sheena Cunningham, 55, were both found guilty by a Brisbane jury earlier this month of 10 charges, including multiple counts of rape and sexual assault.
Arthur Cunningham, 69, and his wife Sheena Cunningham, 55, were both found guilty by a Brisbane jury earlier this month of 10 charges, including multiple counts of rape and sexual assault.
A New Zealand acupuncturist living in Australia has been jailed alongside his wife after “brainwashing” a patient into having sex with them – by convincing their victim it would heal her.
Arthur Cunningham, 69, and his wife, Sheena Cunningham, 55, were both found guilty by a Brisbane jury earlier thismonth of 10 charges, including multiple counts of rape and sexual assault.
At the couple’s sentencing on Friday, the Brisbane District Court heard how the traumatised victim, who was in her 20s, told police how she had been “made to believe, in a slow and calculated way, that this was the only way she would ever be healthy”, the Courier Mail reported.
Judge Suzanne Sheridan told the court the victim had sought treatment from the couple, who ran an acupuncture business out of their home in Queensland’s Thornlands.
The Courier Mail reported the couple had “tricked” the victim, over several months, into thinking she would receive “good hormones” and other health benefits from engaging in various sexual acts with them, Judge Sheridan said.
The victim had since described her experience as being like a “horror movie” and that she had felt “violated in every way”.
“Your offending involved a gross breach of trust, worsened by your repeated abuse,” Judge Sheridan told the couple.
Arthur Cunningham, 69, and his wife, Sheena Cunningham, 55, were both found guilty by a Brisbane jury earlier this month of 10 charges, including multiple counts of rape and sexual assault.
The court heard this would likely be the last time they’d be allowed in the same room together for some years, as defence barrister Charlotte Smith said her client, Arthur Cunningham, “would almost certainly be deported back to New Zealand”, where his wife wouldn’t be allowed to visit him while on parole.
Arthur Cunningham had first qualified as a Chinese Medicine Practitioner in 1981 in New Zealand, before moving to Australia later the same year.
The Courier Mail reported that the couple had met in 1987 when Arthur Cunningham was 31 and Sheena Cunningham was 16.
The pair moved back to Australia in 2010 after living in New Zealand for some time.
Judge Sheridan emphasised the need to deter other general practitioners from abusing their power and taking advantage of patients.
“In her first statement ... the complainant refers to living with having had sex with two people she never wanted to have sex with,” she said.
“She speaks of the most painful despair and grief and nausea throughout her body.”
She said the jury’s guilty verdict reflected a rejection of the couple’s suggestions at trial that the sex had been consensual and part of the victim’s health treatment.
Arthur Cunningham were sentenced to nine years’ jail while Sheena Cunningham was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment.
