A ‘successful’ masseur used his business as a cover to sexually assault ten female clients while giving them full body massages, a court heard.
Background of Marcelo Oliveira
Marcelo Oliveira, 45, is accused of 22 counts of sexual assault and six other serious sexual offences between March 2019 and July 2021. A court heard he took photos of one alleged victim, touched her intimately and told her she had a ‘beautiful body’ which was the ‘best he had ever seen’.
The woman had undergone a ‘Brazilian bum lift’ abroad and said she was told Oliveira’s lymphatic draining massages could help reduce surgical swelling. He would also pull down women’s knickers and touch their breasts and vaginas while pressing his ‘intimate parts’ against their bodies, jurors were told.
Oliveira’s Defense and Denial
Olivera, who describes himself as an aesthetic technician and has offices in Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, and London, denies the charges against him. The businessman from St Albans, Herts, went on trial at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday. Opening the case, prosecutor Antonie Muller said Oliveira undoubtedly set himself up in massage and was successful. He had customers.
“This case is all about, the prosecution say, him using the cover of massage to sexually assault and penetrate these ten women. It is touching vaginas, it is touching breasts, it is touching them with his penis. It is penetrating their vaginas with his fingers, it is pressing himself, his intimate parts against them, it is touching a leg, it is pulling down knickers. He describes himself as a qualified masseur and also describes himself as an aesthetic technician,” Muller said.
When quizzed, Oliveira said he gave lymphatic draining massages which moved fluids around the body for a cosmetic effect and denied touching the women in a sexual way.
Testimony from the First Alleged Victim
His first alleged victim said in 2018 she had had a ‘Brazilian bum lift’ abroad and had been advised the massages would assist her in recovering from surgical swelling. She said she found Oliveira’s business, MO Massage, on Instagram and had contacted the defendant on WhatsApp. The woman said she was given full body massages at her home in Buckinghamshire and Oliveira’s clinic in Knightsbridge, costing £65 for an hour’s session.
She said she would strip naked and added: “He said I had a lot of swelling on my pubic bone and that he would need to massage that to reduce the swelling. That happened every session. He would use slow movements. I just thought it was all part of the process.”
She said on one occasion the defendant had touched an intimate part of her body. Muller asked, “Did he say before he was going to do it?” She said that he had not.
The woman told the court Oliveira would often hold one of her hands during the sessions and would also cover her eyes and play music. She said: “He would say I had a beautiful body. It was the best body he had ever seen. He would ask about my boyfriend who was sometimes in the next room. He would say I did not need a man.”
She said because of his mannerisms and the way he spoke, she thought he might be gay, but he said he was married and had children.
Continuing Trial
The trial continues.
