Therapist is jailed for sex attacks on girls

A 75-year-old hypnotherapist was jailed for eight-and-a-half years today for committing a string of sex attacks on young girls during massage sessions.

Peter Knight was told by Judge William Davis at Birmingham crown court that the offences were a breach of trust aggravated by the fact that his victims were targeted because their mothers were "vulnerable and credulous".

Knight, who claimed to be healing his victims, was convicted last month of 16 counts of indecent assault and three other sex offences after a two-week trial.

The court heard that Knight, of Edgbaston, committed the offences against young women and girls between the late Eighties and late Nineties after advertising himself as a spiritual healer.

The judge told Knight: "You preyed on vulnerable and credulous women who happened to have young female children you could prey on likewise."

Knight was ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.