6-month jail term added to sentence for former massage therapist

Massage therapist who filmed women now behind bars From CTV Kitchener’s Allison Tanner: A former massage therapist is in jail after secretly filming women getting undressed at his clinic.

A Kitchener man who secretly recorded hundreds of women undressing at his massage therapy business will spend time in jail.

James Ward was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail, to be served before the 15 months of house arrest and two years of probation he was sentenced to on Monday.

Ward operated Queen Street Wellness out of the top floor of a property on King Street in Kitchener for several years.

Court documents show that police found more than 1,000 videos of 261 different people on a camera hidden in the room where his female clients undressed before their sessions. The videos were recorded between 2008 and 2016.

Ward was then charged with two counts of voyeurism and two counts of making child pornography – the latter charges because two of the people recorded were under the age of 18.

He pleaded guilty to all charges. Tuesday’s sentence was on the child porn charges, after a judge sentenced Ward for the voyeurism on Monday.

One victim, who cannot be named due to a court order, said that she was glad Ward would spend time in jail, but was “disappointed” in the sentencing overall.

With reporting by Allison Tanner