Acupuncturist accused of sexually assaulting patient during treatment in Florida

An acupuncturist in central Florida is accused of sexually assaulting a patient in a treatment room at his clinic.

Andrew Walsh, 52, is charged with sexual battery, the Clermont Police Department said in a July 8 news release.

His facility, Acupuncture Clermont, declined to comment, and McClatchy News reached out to his attorney July 9 but did not immediately receive a response.

Lake County records show the Australian native pleaded not guilty July 8.

On July 2, a female patient flagged down police officers at a gas station and reported that her acupuncture physician had just assaulted her, according to an arrest affidavit.

She told investigators she had been going to him for about six months due to a herniated disc in her back, and before he put needles in, he usually gave her a massage, police said.

But during her massage this time, she told officers that Walsh moved from her head and neck down to her chest and assaulted her, groping her breasts and genitals under her clothes.

She said he told her that he wished he could do more but had to go, Florida authorities said.

Then he did the acupuncture, and she said she debated leaving with the needles in her back but waited until he came back to remove them because she was worried how he might react, she said.

She told him she had to use the bathroom and left the treatment area, telling the receptionist on the way out that she had been assaulted, she told police. She declined the receptionist’s offer to call 911 and instead pulled over while driving when she saw a patrol vehicle at the gas station.

The patient agreed to call Walsh with police listening in, and she told him she wanted a “better understanding of what had happened.” He said he was sorry if he made her feel uncomfortable or upset and said he was just trying to get her “treatment,” according to a summary of the eight-minute call.

He said he wasn’t interested in her romantically and he was “a little in distress,” police said.

He was arrested July 2, records show.

The Florida Department of Health shows no disciplinary actions or public complaints filed against him since becoming licensed in 2016. Walsh opened Acupuncture Clermont in 2019 after practicing acupuncture in Australia and Southeast Asia, according to his website.

Clermont is about 25-mile drive west from downtown Orlando.