AN OSTEOPATH indecently assaulted a dozen of his male patients for his own sexual gratification, a court has heard.

Stephen Milward's victims included a policeman, a teacher, an airline pilot and even two doctors.

They went to him in pain for help, often when all other means had failed, according to Susan Klonin, prosecuting.

Many of the men returned again and again because his treatment was the only source of pain relief for them.

Miss Klonin said: "He took advantage of their need, their vulnerability, when they were laid out on a treatment table before him."

Milward, aged 49, who worked at the Natural Therapy Clinic in Atherton, has denied 12 offences of indecently assaulting 12 patients between 1990 and 2002.

Miss Klonin told Liverpool Crown Court: "He took advantage of the vulnerable physical state of the men stretched out semi-naked or totally naked on the treatment table."

Milward, of Hough House, Bolton, who is married with children, never offered this treatment to his female patients, she added.

Almost all the men thought that Milward, whom they trusted and respected, was touching them in all innocence and they put up with the indecencies and humiliations without complaint.

"It was inconceivable to them that he was touching them for his own sexual titillation," said Miss Klonin.

Proceeding