Celebrity osteopath ‘one of London’s most prolific voyeurs’

A celebrity osteopath who claimed to have been trusted by Olympic champions has been jailed for being one of London’s most prolific voyeurs.

Torben Stig Hersborg had pleaded guilty to charges of spying on thousands of women over more than a decade.

The 64-year-old Dane, who lived in London, was sentenced on Tuesday to three years and five months in jail after admitting eight charges of taking intimate images and videos of approximately 2,000 women without their knowledge.

Hersborg with Lady Weymouth, the Marchioness of Bath, a fashion model who has appeared on Strictly Come Dancing. There is no suggestion she was one of his victims

A judge at Snaresbrook crown court was told that Hersborg had taken secret images in his clinic, as well as in public and private places. He was also found to have taken images and videos of students living in university accommodation across London.

Prosecutors said that the scale of the offences, which were revealed for the first time in court on Tuesday, suggested that Hersborg was “one of the capital’s most prolific ever voyeurs”.

While in practice, Hersborg boasted of having a string of celebrity clients, including the tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones and the actors Mark Rylance and Anna Friel. He was also said to have worked with top-tier Italian footballers, Olympians and the Danish Tennis Federation.

Senior officials at the Crown Prosecution Service said investigators began looking into Hersborg in December last year after a member of the public reported to police that a suspicious vehicle was stationed outside university accommodation in north London.

Hersborg was seen wearing black gloves in the back of a dark Lexus and the seat was lined with plastic bags. When officers searched the vehicle, they found a telescope in a footwell and a video camera with black tape around the lens, pointed at the students’ homes.

A hard drive, secure digital cards and a recording device were recovered and were found to have thousands of files containing images and videos of victims.

Investigators established that women were filmed without their knowledge in Hersborg’s private practice in London, at beaches, on footpaths, waiting at bus stops or for the Tube and in their homes.

Some pictures and videos showed victims undressing in their bedrooms and bathrooms and two videos were found with images of women having sexual intercourse.

Hersborg boasted about his practice being “trusted by Olympic champions”

METROPOLITAN POLICE

Prosecutors said that despite not being able to identify any of the women who were recorded in the videos and photographs — or obtain statements from them — the use of digital evidence was enough to build a case against the osteopath.

Hersborg initially pleaded guilty to multiple voyeurism charges last December and then the next month admitted five more charges of voyeurism.

After sentencing, Alex Weichselbaum, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said that Hersborg had “operated in plain sight for too long and, having targeted thousands of women over 12 years, we believe the scale and significance of his offending makes him one of London’s most prolific voyeurs”.

Weichselbaum added that the Dane had “meticulously” set up secret cameras in his clinic to covertly film women while also taking their images in public and in their homes.

“Hersborg deliberately abused the trust of his unwitting patients by filming them in intimate positions and targeted strangers for his own sexual gratification,” said Weichselbaum.