A Dunedin massage therapist is now seeing clients with a chaperone since being accused of sexual assault.
The defendant, aged in their 60s, was charged with indecent assault and appeared in the Dunedin District Court last week.
They were granted interim name suppression and bailed on the condition that any future massage was done in the presence of a third party.
The defendant told the Otago Daily Times they continued to work and had told "some" of their clients about the allegation.
They were adamant they would defend the charge, though a plea is only required at the next hearing, in two weeks.
Indecent assault carries a maximum prison term of seven years and comes with a strike under the three-strikes legislation.
If name suppression is to continued beyond the defendant’s next appearance, it will have to be fully argued before a judge.
