Celebrity psychic, 77, told female client he could 'blow the bad spirits out' before sexually assaulting her

A celebrity psychic claimed he could draw out bad spirits before sexually assaulting a female customer, a court heard.

Peter MacDonald took advantage of the woman while she was 'under a spell' during a faith healing session in his bedroom in Shaftesbury, Dorset.

The 77-year-old got the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to lie on his bed, take off her clothes and then rubbed her body with a 'special oil' before he indecently assaulted her.

She claimed she 'felt uncomfortable' but was unable to tell him to stop and was 'bordering on hysterical' when she eventually left the session.

A jury at Bournemouth Crown Court found he committed four acts of sexual assault, although were unable to rule whether MacDonald was guilty after he was diagnosed with cancer and deemed unfit to stand trial.

MacDonald denied any sexual assault took place, before suffering a deterioration in his mental health and a cancer diagnosis which meant he was deemed unfit to stand trial.

This meant the jury at Bournemouth Crown Court could not decide whether or not he was guilty and instead undertook a fact-finding exercise to decide if he 'did the acts'. They found he did commit the four acts of sexual assault he was accused of.

Judge Robert Pawson said MacDonald's sentencing options were 'limited'. He said he would adjourn the matter for two weeks to be provided with a doctor's note.

The court heard that MacDonald had a number of convictions going back to the 1960s, mostly related to dishonesty and had several aliases.

The judge told the jury: 'You can understand why we didn't have a trial with the defendant but the complainant was entitled to give her evidence whilst he's still alive and have a finding. One hopes your verdicts might provide her with some form of closure. It was an unusual case and your input was vital.'

The court heard the victim went to see MacDonald after suffering a number of setbacks in her personal life.

She admitted that her head had been turned by MacDonald when he had name-dropped celebrity clients he had treated.

As well as Robbie Williams and Dua Lipa, he also claimed to have helped heal actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes and radio DJ Johnnie Walker.

She first visited MacDonald at his home in Shaftesbury, Dorset, for a tarot card reading in August 2021.

She said she completely trusted him after he 'hit the nail on the head' with a very accurate reading and he then said he thought she would benefit from a healing session.

She said: 'He came highly recommended. (My boyfriend) had been to see him previously and he predicted a lot of things that had come true.

'Lots of other people had used him, rich and famous people. He did a lot of name dropping - Robbie Williams and Dua Lipa had used his services.

'He was name-dropping celebrities - Ralph Fiennes and his brother, said he was best friends with Johnnie Walker, the Radio 2 presenter, that he heavily recommended him. I thought if all these people with lots of money are using him, he must be good.

'Name dropping again he said he had run these retreats in the past with healing sessions for singers and pop stars and they had been successful.

'He just gave me the impression he was a decent, trustworthy guy. I thought he could provide me with some answers about life decisions I was in the process of making.

'There were a lot of things he said that I thought there's no way he could know about me. Things about my family and friends, and past experiences, and things he predicted about the future. I was quite bowled over by how good he was.'

Giving evidence of the sexual assault she suffered, she said MacDonald told her to strip her top half and lie on the bed. He rubbed his hands up and down her body with the oil, 'drawing the bad spirits out'.

He also told her to 'blow the spirits out' by blowing into his mouth and then used a technique called 'fireblowing' to suck and blow the spirits out, putting his mouth on intimate parts of her body.

She said: 'I felt uncomfortable but I didn't want to cause a scene.

'I had not read around what's involved so I didn't know if it was a bona fide healing method. I didn't want to embarrass myself by saying 'hang on, this isn't right'.

'Each time he went further down. He mentioned he was going on to a 'fireblow', that's when he started using his mouth on my body.'

She said she wanted it to be over as quickly as possible and was 'bordering on hysterical' when she got into the car with her boyfriend and sister after.