Hypnotherapist Stephen Dyer jailed for sex attacks on clients

A hypnotherapist named Stephen Dyer has been sentenced to five years in prison for sexual attacks on female clients. Dyer, aged 50, faced multiple charges including sexual activity with a careworker on a person with a mental disorder, deception, and sexual assault that took place between 2004 and 2006. Although one deception charge was withdrawn on the judge’s instruction, Dyer was convicted on the remaining charges after an extensive police investigation that began when a woman reported being sexually assaulted during a treatment session at his office in Hawks Lane, Canterbury. The court heard that Dyer exploited his role as a trained hypnotherapist and psychotherapist to manipulate and abuse his clients' trust for his own sexual gratification. During sentencing, Judge Adele Williams stated that Dyer treated his patients with "callous indifference." Following his conviction, authorities imposed a Sexual Offenders Prevention Order preventing him from working as a therapist and ordered him to register as a sex offender for life. A senior police officer described Dyer as a "calculating man who preyed on women's vulnerabilities for his own sexual gratification," highlighting how he groomed and manipulated vulnerable individuals for his own benefit.