A spiritual healer has been jailed for a  string of depraved sexual assaults on vulnerable women he had been treating at  his home.

George Boak, 70, insisted during his trial he  was innocent and his victims had in fact felt nothing more than ‘phantom  hands’.

But the jury refused to believe his story and  found him guilty of two counts of sexual assault and one of indecent  assault.

The court heard how he groped his victims’  naked and semi-naked bodies – telling them wearing clothes would limit the  therapeutic effect of the treatment.

Jailing Boak for two years, judge Jonathan  Rose told him these were ‘repulsive’ acts of ‘depravity and lust’, adding that  the offences took place ‘under the guise of medical or quasi-medical  treatment’.

The judge told Boak: ‘The offences you have  committed are the very antithesis of any of the teachings of the Christian  faith.

‘They are acts of depravity and lust and are  repulsive to any person of any, or indeed, of no religious faith.’

Judge Rose also slammed Boak’s defence that  his patients had experienced ‘phantom hands’, which the healer claimed his  victims had mistaken for his own hands.

He said: ‘I’m quite satisfied that you lied  to the jury when you claimed that what your victims had felt was nothing more  than phantom hands.

‘This is a phenomenon where patients feel  they are being touched when they are not.

‘Whether such a phenomenon exists I don’t  know.

‘You said to the jury that you knew of one  case where a person had reported phantom hands entering under their clothes  touching there private parts.

‘This was a significant lie, through which  the jury saw.’

Judge Rose added: ‘This case has never been  about whether your form of healing was genuine or bogus.

‘But it seems to me that if you engage in a  form of medical healing which involves placing your hands on an individual that  is vulnerable, sometimes naked or semi-naked on a treatment couch, there is an  expectation that your standards and conduct should be as high as those which  would be expected by a patient of conventional medicine.

‘You would be expected to behave as if you  were a doctor, or a surgeon or a dentist.’

The husband of one of his victims,  who  cannot be named for legal reasons, said after the sentencing that  Boak has  ‘rightly been exposed as the cruel and arrogant sex offender  that he  is’.

The judge told Boak, of Halifax, West Yorks.,  his victims were ‘particularly vulnerable’ because they were women desperate to  be cured of long-standing ailments which had not been successfully treated by  conventional medicine.

Boak’s first victim, a mother-of-three, had  gone to him with chronic back pain in 2003, and he had groped her before  continuing with the treatment as if nothing had happened.

As the judge was explaining the background of  the case, he broke off to address Boak, who sat shaking his head in the dock,  saying: ‘I can see you shaking your head, Mr Boak, which demonstrates you  continue unwillingness to demonstrate any remorse whatsoever.’

The court heard that because the first victim  was unable to report the attack, Boak was free to move on to another  victim.

His second victim had put her trust in Boak  and agreed to be naked in the healing sessions, because he assured her the  treatment would be more effective this way. But on their last session he kissed  her breasts and touched her genitals.

Then, in 2012, Boak attacked another patient  – putting his hands down her top onto her breasts and groping her.

His last victim went to the police to make a  complaint – and during the course of police investigations the second  complainant, who was attacked seven years previously, was found.

The first victim came forward after seeing a  report of Boak’s court appearance in a local paper.

Michelle Lofthouse, for Boak, told the court  that her client was relied upon by his wife due to ill-health, but Judge Rose  pointed out that the offences had taken place when his wife was in the  house.

Telling Boak that the public ‘needed  protection’ from people who they place their trust in, Judge Rose handed him a  two-year sentence for each of the three offences, which will run  concurrently.

He ordered Boak to sign onto the Sex  Offender’s Register for ten years. And he was also made subject to an indefinite  Sexual Offences Protection Order, which prohibits Boak from conducting any  treatment in person with a female unless accompanied by a person over 18 years  of age.

One of the victim’s husbands said in a  statement after the sentencing: ‘My wife and I are relieved that George Boak has  been convicted of sexual offences unanimously. He has rightly been exposed as  the cruel and arrogant sex offender that he is.

‘He exposed my wife and his other victims to  the ordeal of a trial during which they have been forced to relive the horrific  experiences that they have had to live with for years.

‘I am proud of my wife and the other two  ladies for having the strength to endure this and bring George Boak to  justice.

‘Throughout this ordeal George Boak showed no  remorse for his actions.

‘These brave ladies will continue to have to  live with these memories even though his conviction brings an element of closure  for them.

‘He allowed my wife and the others into his  home at a time when, using his own word, they were desperate to achieve relief  from chronic pain.

‘They trusted him and he abused that trust in  the most depraved way.

‘He denied them the healing that he can  undoubtedly offer but worse still, he took away their trust and damaged their  health and well-being.

‘We hope he will accept his guilt and that  his family, like his survivors, are able to cope with the consequences of his  crimes.

‘We also hope that this case will act as a  message to abusers that they cannot act with impunity and that it may inspire  other victims of sexual crime to report such offences to the police.’

Read more: DailyMail