Warning: graphic content
The transcript of a police-tapped phone call in which a woman confronted her rapist masseur has been released by a court ahead of the molester’s sentence.
Masseur Steven Goldberg, 69, was found guilty in November of raping and sexually touching a 32-year-old client during a two-hour massage in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in October 2023.
The woman heard about Goldberg’s “Lomi Lomi” massage on the radio via the Kyle and Jackie O show.
On the show, according to documents tendered to the NSW District Court, Jackie O said the massage “was like having 10 years of counselling in one session… [it] took her back to her childhood and made her cry”.
A pamphlet for Goldberg’s clinic – which he ran from a studio in his Dover Heights house – described a “Lomi Lomi massage” as a type of soft and deep tissue massage that uses “bodywork” which may invoke an emotional response as “various energies are shifting”.
According to the crown’s case, Goldberg told the woman that she would be “completely naked” for the massage, and the optional “modesty towel” would “get in his way”.
After telling Goldberg she was open to the experience of being naked, she lay face-down on the massage table for the first 1.5 hours of the two-hour massage.
At one point, she felt him massage her inner thighs close to her genitals. With half an hour left, he asked her to turn around and blindfolded her. He moved his hands up and down her breasts, then moved down her stomach towards her lower abdomen.
The court heard that he asked: “Are we right to keep going?” which the woman believed to refer to the massage, so she said “yes”.
Then, Goldberg digitally penetrated her without consent, while pinching her nipples.
The massage continued for another five to 10 minutes while the woman lay frozen and in shock.
Before she left, the Crown submitted, Goldberg said: “That doesn’t always happen, but sometimes it does” and “that was my pleasure”.
The next day, the woman reported the rape to police and doctors.
Ten days later, as part of the police investigation, she attended Marrickville Police Station and was briefed about wearing a surveillance device to call Goldberg.
In a transcript released by the court, the woman asked if he was penetrating her with his fingers during the massage.
Goldberg said he was, adding “And… that’s your control… you know I don’t do it if… you know what I mean… ummm I don’t go there if you don’t want me to”.
The woman asked if she were to refer him to friends, if that was “something that would happen”, to which Goldberg said: “Only if they wanted that”.
The woman then clarified that when he asked if she was “all good to keep going”, she interpreted that as going on with the massage.
Goldberg responded: “Oh. Oh. OK. Um I am so sorry. That is not what you wanted”.
The victim said he needed to obtain informed consent each step of the way, to which he agreed. She said: “I want to know, at what point did you think it was something I wanted?”
Goldberg described that as a “good question”, adding “it was a sense” and he “sort of asked permission… or thought I did but, obviously, I didn’t. It rarely happens”.
The complainant reiterated: “What made you think that I would want that”, adding that he was her father’s age and that she told him before the massage that she had a girlfriend.
The call finished with Goldberg apologising, before telling her the act did not sexually arouse him when she asked if it did.
In an impact statement tendered to court, the woman described the “profound and ongoing impact” of the assault, including physical, emotional, psychological social, and financial consequences.
She said that she trusted Goldberg as a professional and placed her safety in his care.
“Instead of respecting my body and my trust, he exploited his position of power and violated me,” she said.
“I felt physically disgusting, dirty and tainted… The assault has changed my life in ways I never asked for and never deserved”.
The woman described feeling unsafe in medical and therapeutic settings – leaving her overdue for important health checks – and quitting work because she could not cope.
Throughout the trial, Goldberg did not dispute digitally penetrating the woman, but argued he thought it was consensual.
Goldberg attended Vaucluse High School before completing a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the UNSW Sydney. He worked in finance until aged 49 before entering a partnership manufacturing prescription medications, which he left about a decade later to study and pursue a career in massaging and nutrition.
He is married with three children.
Jackie O is not accused of any wrongdoing, and the Herald does not suggest the radio segment implied there was any sexual element to the massage.
Goldberg will be sentenced later on Tuesday.
Anyone needing support can contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732), National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028, Lifeline 13 11 14, Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800.
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