Warning: This story contains detailed descriptions of sexual assault that readers may find upsetting. The operator of a medical aesthetics business in Burnaby has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for sexually assaulting clients during “non-surgical vaginal rejuvenation” treatments using a “high-intensity focused ultrasound machine.” A jury convicted Farshad Khojsteh Kashani last year of seven counts of sexual assault, each involving a different client. He was sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court earlier this month, and Justice Lisa A. Warren’s reasons for sentencing were published online Thursday. The offences occurred between 2019 and 2021, according to a news release issued by Burnaby RCMP in 2022 after two different victims had come forward. At the time, Khojsteh Kashani had been charged with two counts of sexual assault, but police said they hadn’t ruled out that other people might have information related to the case, and urged those people to contact them. Warren’s decision indicates five other victims came forward in response to the police appeal. The offences The women’s identities are protected by a publication ban, and they are referred to in the decision only by initials. According to the decision, HIFU vaginal rejuvenation treatments, when properly performed, involve gently and slowly inserting a wand that emits “ultrasound energy” into the vagina, with the client lying on their back in “a ‘pap smear’ position.” “The process involves a single insertion and then the gradual withdrawal of the wand,” the decision reads. “The practitioner is required to touch the vaginal area of the client only to the extent necessary to guide the wand during the initial insertion.” As summarized in Warren’s decision, the victims described procedures that departed from this standard significantly. One woman told the court Khojsteh Kashani ordered her to bend over and allow him to insert the wand from behind. Others reported that he had inserted his fingers into their vaginas or rubbed their clitorises. Some reported Khojsteh Kashani making inappropriate comments, including telling one woman, “it’s OK if you orgasm – most women do.” That victim, identified in the decision as D.B., reported telling him to stop multiple times, and that the procedure hurt. He did not stop. All of the victims reported that Khojsteh Kashani moved the wand in and out of their vaginas repeatedly and, in some cases, “aggressively.” The women’s victim impact statements to the court included descriptions of being “deeply traumatized” by Khojsteh Kashani’s conduct and finding the assaults “humiliating, degrading and terrifying.” “All of the complainants have experienced ongoing emotional and psychological suffering,” the decision reads. The sentence Throughout his trial, Khojsteh Kashani denied that he had touched any of the victims inappropriately, and Warren’s decision indicates he continues to maintain his innocence despite the jury’s verdict. According to the decision, Khojsteh Kashani and his wife immigrated to Canada from Iran, where they were both medical doctors, in 2011. The couple submitted more than two dozen letters of support from family, friends and clients, all of them describing him in “glowing terms.” Khojsteh Kashani has no previous criminal record, and many of the letter-writers expressed a belief that he would change his behaviour in the future and would be a low risk to reoffend. “When speaking to the psychological assessor, Mr. Khojsteh Kashani maintained his innocence and again characterized the sexual assault allegations as misunderstandings,” the decision reads. “Despite this, he expressed sorrow that the complainants had experienced harm, appeared visibly distressed when discussing the impact on the complainants, and expressed openness to participate in sex offender treatment, although he said he does not believe it is needed. He maintained he does not pose a risk of future sexual offending and advised that he has continued to perform procedures to intimate areas of women’s bodies, under supervision, without complaint.” Khojsteh Kashani asked the court for a conditional sentence of two years less a day, plus three years of probation, arguing that the court’s sentencing objectives of “deterrence and denunciation” had already been met by the “stigma and public shaming” he experienced because of media coverage of his offences. The Crown, meanwhile, asked Warren for a sentence of 12 years in prison, calculated as three to four years per assault, to be served consecutively, but reduced by half because of the “totality principle” that judges must consider when determining the appropriate overall sentence for an offender. Prosecutors argued there were several aggravating factors that weighed in favour of a lengthy prison sentence, including the fact that Khojsteh Kashani “abused a position of trust,” the prolonged duration and highly invasive nature of the assaults, and the persistence despite requests to stop in some cases. Warren ruled that a conditional sentence would be “manifestly disproportionate to the gravity of the offences” and sentenced Khojsteh Kashani to a total of 11 years behind bars, representing sentences of 18 months each for five of the charges and 21 months for each of the other two, all served consecutively. Accordingly, you are granted credit at one and-a-half days for each day you served in custody, which amounts to a credit of 252 days of pre-sentence custody. The judge also ordered him to submit DNA for registration, banned him from possessing various weapons, ordered him to have no contact with any of his victims and to pay a $1,400 victim surcharge. Khojsteh Kashani must also comply with the Sex Offender Information Registration Act for 20 years.
