Psychic faces jail for conning women into performing naked sex acts

A psychic who conned young female disciples into stripping off for raunchy spiritualist sessions is facing jail.

Karl Lang, 49, was found guilty today of 12 counts of causing women to engage in sexual activity without consent.

The rogue medium targeted two women in their 20s who sought him out in the belief he could contact dead relatives.

Lang, of Newport, South Wales, brainwashed his vulnerable victims and went so far as to claim he was Jesus Christ reincarnated.

Both women were encouraged to perform sex acts in front of him and pressed to act more and more outrageously as his influence increased.

One told the trial she was conned into acting like a "porn star" in the belief that her naked antics would boost her own spiritual powers.

Lang generally sat watching, fully clothed, but would occasionally strip off himself and join in.

His manipulative behaviour lasted almost four years and covered a period from November 2005 until September 2009.

A jury at Newport Crown Court found him guilty of all 12 charges today, dismissing claims that he was an innocent spiritualist instructor.

All 12 counts were majority verdicts. The brief trial started on Monday.

Judge Patrick Curran QC agreed to grant Lang bail to "get his affairs in order" until a sentencing hearing some time next month.

But he warned: "This involved a very serious breach of trust and an immediate custodial sentence is, it seems to me, absolutely inevitable."

He described Lang's activity as "systematic conduct and a breach of trust involving two very vulnerable young women".

He added that they were "vulnerable in the sense that they were bereaved and sought the defendant's consultation in communicating with those who died, and he took the most gross advantage of the situation".

PA