A Sydney chiropractor used Google Translate to apologise to his Japanese patient after sexually assaulting her during a massage, saying he had never done such a thing before, the woman told a jury.
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Riaz Behi, 45, is accused of repeatedly raping and sexually touching the young woman with lower back and groin pain at the treatment rooms at The Back Guys practice in Sydney's CBD.
He has pleaded not guilty to five counts of aggravated sexual assault and eight counts of aggravated sexual touching of the woman.
Giving evidence on Tuesday through a Japanese interpreter, the woman said Behi asked if she wanted him to stop after he touched her vagina and anus during a massage in February 2019.
"Yes, yes, yes," she replied.
With the two communicating through translation app Google Translate, Behi told the woman he had humiliated himself and he had never done something like this in a long career.
The app's translation was probably not entirely accurate, she said.
"I'm sorry to offend you or make you feel bad and I will never do it again," the woman recalled Behi saying through the app.
She said she just wanted a regular massage and he promised not to do it again, she told the NSW District Court jury through tears.
The conversation allegedly happened about halfway through the course of 17 appointments in early 2019.
The woman has given evidence that the chiropractor had previously inserted a finger in her vagina during a massage.
The woman tearfully said she booked another appointment after the assault and subsequent conversation because she thought she would be in trouble if she left without an appointment.
She told the jury that cultural differences and her poor English meant she had a difficult time when she first arrived in Australia.
"It was psychologically difficult to understand my situation and make my decisions," she said.
"Now I understand Australian culture and how I was treated in those periods of time."
She had thought Behi was a "very nice person" because he had been kind enough to use Google Translate with her, she said.
The woman was menstruating during the two next appointments and Behi did not touch her inappropriately after she told him that, she said.
"I thought he would stop in the future, I thought he wouldn't do it again," the woman explained.
"He is a medical doctor. He is not a stupid person. I clearly told him the things I didn't want him to do," she said. "I still trusted him."
The chiropractor agrees none of the touching alleged by the woman constitutes appropriate chiropractic treatment.
The jury has been told a live issue will be why the woman kept returning for treatment if such "horrendous things" were happening.
"No one in the circumstances outlined by the Crown would dare be putting up with that kind of treatment," Behi's barrister, William Brewer, has told the jury.
The trial resumes on Wednesday.
Australian Associated Press
