Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction New Age and human-potential movements Kuurne, West Flanders, Belgium · 2020

Belgium: hypnotherapist convicted a second time of assaulting clients he had placed under hypnosis

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

practicing hypnotherapist conducting paid hypnosis sessions with clients

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

Clients placed under hypnotic trance during paid treatment sessions, rendered unable to resist while he touched them — a repeat pattern across at least two prosecutions, with the hypnotic state itself functioning as the disabling mechanism.

  • Spiritual healing or treatment

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. Date in cited record · conviction

    Rechtbank van eerste aanleg (Correctionele rechtbank), Kortrijk, Belgium. Ivan V.L., a 72-year-old hypnotherapist from Kuurne, was convicted of assault (aanranding) for touching several women on intimate parts of their bodies while he had placed them under hypnosis during treatment sessions, leaving them unable to resist. It was his second appearance before a Belgian court in three years on comparable allegations from clients. He attributed his conduct at trial to encroaching dementia.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • induced hypnotic trance used to prevent clients from resisting or realizing what was being done to them
  • repeat offending across multiple clients over several years before facing a second prosecution

Primary record

Sources

high quality reporting disposition "Hypnotherapeut (72) veroordeeld voor aanranding patiënten: 'Hij bepotelde hen omdat hij dement wordt'", De Krantenkoppen (aggregating Belgian regional press).

Report of the conviction, the hypnosis mechanism, and the defendant's dementia claim.

high quality reporting proceeding "Hypnotherapeut riskeert twee jaar cel voor aanranding van cliënten", Het Kortrijks Weekblad (KW), 10 June 2020.

Regional paper of record on the prosecution, confirming this was his second appearance in court on client-assault allegations.

Related record

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