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A woman who says she was duped into a sexual relationship with a natural healer says she was told the affair would help her recover from an earlier rape, which he claimed had occurred because of a rape she had committed in a previous life.
Disgraced North Shore
healer Geoffrey Mogridge - who claimed to be a clairvoyant, numerologist and natural health practitioner - is facing a damages claim totalling $95,000 brought by the woman and her husband, whom Mogridge at one stage counselled while having an affair with the woman.
The couple - both health practitioners - claim Mogridge breached their rights under the Health and Disability (Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights) Regulations. The claims relate to the woman's right to be free of sexual violation, and her right to be provided services in a manner that "optimises" the quality of life.
They also claim Mogridge breached the couple's right to have "legal, professional and ethical" services.
The couple's names - and other identifying information - are suppressed. Mogridge, who ran his clinic from his Hillcrest home, is no longer practising.
The woman told a Human Rights Review Tribunal hearing in Auckland yesterday that she had begun seeing Mogridge, on a professional basis, in May 2003. She was seeking counselling for a rape, which had taken place in 1991 while she was living in Europe.
Mogridge conducted counselling, numerology readings and "energy and healing work" in the four-hour session.
At a second meeting later that month, Mogridge told the woman she had been a prostitute in two previous lives, and was raped in this one as punishment for herself committing rape when she was a man in yet another earlier incarnation.
Mogridge then attempted to kiss her, but was rejected, the tribunal heard. She said he then told her she needed to kiss him, to work through her "issues". She paid Mogridge $100 for that one-hour session.
The two began a sexual relationship in subsequent sessions, all of which the woman paid for. Some of the sessions involved no healing whatsoever, just sex, she told the tribunal. She paid Mogridge a fee "because I had used his time".
At one point, the woman's husband attended Mogridge's sessions to help his wife confront her issues about the rape.
He told the tribunal he had been dubious of Mogridge's healing claims, particularly when he had said "we had all come from Atlantis".
The man's scepticism peaked at the point when Mogridge was "wandering around", playing a didgeridoo.
The man was counselled, and taught breathing exercises over four meetings, costing about $780, but ended the sessions after deciding they were "a money-making scheme".
He told the tribunal he felt humiliated when he learned he had sought counselling from Mogridge, while Mogridge had been having an affair with his wife.
"Clearly, I would not have consulted him had I known he was having sex with [my wife]."
The woman eventually discovered Mogridge had been conducting a relationship with another patient while he had been seeing her. She ended the relationship in early 2004, telling her husband about it in 2006.
She paid Mogridge $2000 in fees over the course of the relationship, a statement of claim says.
The other woman - who also went to Mogridge as a former victim of sexual abuse - is seeking damages from Mogridge totalling $80,000. Her name, too, is suppressed.
She is expected to give evidence later in the hearing, which is likely to run through the week.