Physio on sex assault charges cleared of all counts

Married father-of-three Richard Scholefield, 47, walked free from Sheffield Crown Court after a jury took just 45 minutes to deliver its final verdict after a two-week trial.

Judge Michael Murphy earlier this week ordered the jury to clear Scholefield of three charges of intentionally touching a 39-year-old woman’s breasts and groin.

The chartered NHS physio was also found not guilty of intimately touching a 16-year-old patient he was treating for a hip complaint.

Scholefield was still accused of one offence of touching the 39-year-old intimately, but the jury cleared him of that charge as well.

There were gasps of delight from his family in the public gallery as the verdict was delivered.

Scholefield, of Birkby, Huddersfield, had denied all five charges of sexual assault.

The 39-year-old woman had claimed Scholefield began massaging the inside of her thighs and groin area when she went in to see him with a bad back.

She claimed his hands moved “constantly” towards her genital area and, as she was leaving the treatment room at Barnsley’s Mount Vernon Hospital, she claimed he said to her: “You look like you enjoyed that.”

Scholefield was suspended 
following the complaint against him.

He said he treated the patient properly and got her consent for everything he did.

He told the court he had treated 17,000 patients in his 11 years as a trainee and fully qualified physio without complaint.

Referring to the 39-year-old woman, he said that, by manipulating her during the session, he hoped to reduce her back pain and improve her posture.

He denied touching her intimately and also told police the alleged comment about “enjoying herself” was untrue.

Mr Scholefield had also denied intimately touching a 16-year-old girl who he treated at a clinic in Penistone, near Barnsley.

The girl only came forward after police approached her following the complaint from the 39-year-old woman.