Opening the Crown case, prosecutor Andrew McKenry said each woman separately complained of health problems, which Kumar told them could be remedied through massage.

One woman testified yesterday that she began seeing Kumar in late 2006, believing that yoga would be an effective way to restore her body, having given birth about six months earlier.

She said she had mastitis at the time and her groin was still sore from childbirth, so accepted Kumar's word that massage, and in particular, internal vaginal massage, would help her.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Amanda Fox, the woman - to whom all of the rape charges and two of the indecent assault charges relate - said she gave Kumar permission to digitally penetrate her and, as a result of his massage, the lumps in her breast disappeared and her vaginal pain lessened.

She said she was surprised at how intimate the massage became but ''reconciled it with myself because of the gravity of the situation. I was in pain for a long time.'' The woman said when she asked Kumar about halfway through the series of about 20 sessions what the vaginal massage was for, he replied: ''It smooths the walls of the vagina.''