A fraudulent “spiritual healer” told a woman her marital problems can be fixed if she had sex with him, the Birmingham Mail reports.
A court was told yesterday that Syed Shah also conned his victim to pay him £6,000.
Shah told the 28-year-old woman that having sex with him would help to overcome the marital problems she was experiencing, Birmingham Crown Court was told.
Shah, 30, of Latelow Road, Stechford , has denied two charges of rape and one of fraud.
Mark Heywood, prosecuting, said that the case was about deceit and that under the guise of spiritual healer he “took advantage of the emotional state” of the victim.
He went on to say, “He took advantage of her for his own sexual and financial gratification.”
Mr Heywood said the woman who had been married for three years and had a young son, had been living in circumstances which caused her a great deal of stress.
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She was suffering from post natal depression and also lived with a large number of her in-laws.
In June 2015, a friend of hers’ introduced her to Shah who told her he could help to make things “settle down” between her and her husband, said Mr Heywood.
“After they met he offered to take steps to purify the relationship.
“He required £600 for a ritual sacrifice to be made,” he said.
Mr Heywood said the victim gave him the money in cash but marital issues still continued.
The defendant then told the woman there were two further rituals to be carried out and that “part of that process was to have sex with him or the relationship would fail.”
Mr Heywood said the victim was told that it was the last resort and that she “endured” having sexual intercourse with Shah.
When she later contacted Shah, the conman told her the ritual had to be recommenced and that he had to have sex with him again, he said.
Mr Heywood said the woman initially rebuffed the defendant saying she would use her own ways to make things better between her and her husband.
However, Shah managed to persuade her to “resume physical contact” with him, and as a result she had sex with him again, he said.
Later, he said, she felt uncomfortable and felt she was being unfaithful to her husband but Shah encouraged her and told her he should trust him.
Mr Heywood said it was the prosecution’s case that on neither of the occasions she had sex with Shah did she give “genuine consent” and that he had “induced” her into believing he was acting as a “spiritual healer”.
He said Shah had told the woman that his services were free but that a man he worked for called the “Hindu man” needed money to finance his work and that the victim had subsequently paid a further £5,400.
Mr Heywood said the woman had gone to the police after seeing a report on the website of the Birmingham Mail of Shah sexually assaulting another woman while under the pretext that he was a spiritual healer.
The case is till ongoing.
