A warrant was issued Monday for the arrest of a massage therapist convicted of sexual assault earlier this year after he failed to attend his sentencing hearing because he was out of the country.

Jasil Rahman Puniyanikodan’s lawyer Donna Pledge told the court her client had told her by email that he was in India and that he did not know when he would be returning to Toronto.

Crown prosecutor Andrew Max told the court that the officer in charge of the case had tried unsuccessfully to find Puniyanikodan. She was told by a neighbour that Puniyanikodan, 38, had gone away with his family and wasn’t sure when he’d be back.

Puniyanikodan was convicted of sexual assault for massaging the breasts and nipples of an 18-year-old university student for five minutes without her consent at the end of an hour-long massage, Ontario Court Justice John Moore said in his decision from January.

The woman had gone for a massage in October 2017 because of soreness in her neck and shoulders.

Puniyanikodan, a registered massage therapist, denied massaging the woman’s breasts at all.

Moore rejected that account. “She is telling the truth. He is lying,” the judge said in his decision. “I accept her testimony 100 per cent.”

When the sexual assault occurred, the woman testified she felt an “anxiety-induced paralysis” she’d never experienced before.

“In my body it felt like there was heat running through my veins,” she told the court. She said she tried to convince herself in the moment that this was part of the massage practice at a place she’d never gone to before. “I was just, really an equal mix confused and really scared,” she said.

The conviction came after Puniyanikodan was found not guilty of sexual assault in a similar incident from February 2015. A 38-year-old woman testified that, during a massage at an Aurora spa, Puniyanikodan touched and squeezed her breasts, placed his hands over her vagina “basically pushing right inside” and massaged her buttocks in a way that brought his thumb within an inch of her anus.

Puniyanikodan testified that no inappropriate touching took place during the massage.

In that case, Ontario Court Justice Peter Tetley found that, while “it may well be” that the complainant was sexually assaulted in the way she described, Puniyanikodan’s testimony raised a reasonable doubt.

After he was acquitted, Puniyanikodan said he had lost two years of his life.

“It’s hard to work to feed your family when women are between 70 and 80 per cent of those who get massages,” he told yorkregion.com.

Puniyanikodan was investigated by the College of Massage Therapists of Ontario at the time, according to spokesperson Angie Brennand. The college “did not conclude its investigation until the criminal matter was completed,” she said. She did not say what the conclusion of the college’s investigation was but noted Puniyanikodan had been acquitted of the criminal charge.

The only reference to the February 2015 incident on the college’s website is a referral dated Sept. 6, 2018 that states he is now facing professional misconduct charges over the allegations. No hearing date is listed and, according to the website, no findings have been made.

His licence was suspended in December 2017 as a result of his second charge — the October 2017 sexual assault, Brennand said. The power to issue an interim license suspension prior to the end of an investigation only became available to the College in 2017, as a result of the Protection Patients Act. The investigation can continue in his absence, Brennand said.

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Puniyanikodan’s bail conditions are listed on the college website, which states he became a licensed massage therapist in 2014.

At the Monday court appearance, the Crown said he would be asking that Puniyanikodan be sentenced in absentia for his conviction in the 2017 sexual assault. The Crown will be seeking a sentence of 14 months in jail.

The victim had flown to Toronto in order to read her victim impact statement in person, the Crown said, however upon learning Puniyanikodan would not be present she chose not to attend court.

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Puniyanikodan was released on a $2,000 bail with his wife listed as a surety after his arrest in October 2017. He is a permanent resident in Canada, according to court documents, and was born in India. His bail conditions banned him from practising massage therapy on women but did not prohibit travel or require him to surrender his passport. His bail was not revoked after his conviction, which is common practice.

His lawyer said he told her that he was in India for health reasons brought on by the stress of his conviction but provided no information about hospitalization or any other reason that prevented him from attending court Monday.

Justice Moore observed that it seemed unlikely that he would be returning.

The sentencing hearing was adjourned until May 29 for Puniyanikodan’s lawyer to inform him, obtain instructions, and prepare for a sentencing hearing in absentia.

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