Luxury spas accused of burying string of horrific sexual assaults by massage therapists – with staff ‘offering one victim a free bottle of wine as apology’

A chain of luxury spas in California has been accused of covering up a series of sexual assaults on guests by massage therapists at their five-star hotels.

Two lawsuits against the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa and its sister hotel Claremont Club & Spa in Berkeley – both owned by Accor Group – allege a pattern of abuse and cover-up by staff dating back two decades.

In court documents seen by DailyMail.com, a 50-year-old woman says she was getting a massage at the Sonoma spa in December 2017 when her masseuse sexually assaulted her and inserted his fingers into her vagina.

In another suit, a 48-year-old woman said another masseuse “grabbed her legs and pulled them open” and then “inserted his fingers into her vagina for about a minute.”

In both cases, the women alleged that hotel staff failed to take appropriate action by offering the first victim a free bottle of wine and the second a free night’s stay.

The women’s lawyer, Micah Liberty, told DailyMail.com that more than a dozen allegations of “horrific” sexual misconduct have been made by staff at the two resorts since 2003.

The suits are centered around the five-star Wine Country resorts, where guests pay up to $1,500 per night to stay in luxurious rooms surrounded by immaculately manicured grounds with pools, gyms and golf courses.

The first lawsuit against the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa was filed in November 2018 by a 50-year-old woman identified only as Jane Doe.

Doe alleged that during her stay at the hotel in December 2017, she was sexually assaulted by her masseuse, a man named Daniel Cortright.

She alleged that during the massage he touched her vagina without consent and said, “You’re wet down there.”

She said she made an excuse to leave the room, found her husband and informed the resort manager, Kacey O’Rourke.

According to court documents, Mrs. O’Rourke did not call the police and instead sent a free bottle of wine to Doe and her husband.

Doe reported the incident to police, who investigated it but never referred the case to prosecutors. So she filed a civil complaint against the hotel and its owners.

According to Doe’s attorney, Liberty, the complaint was settled for an undisclosed amount and Cortright was fired.

Daniel Cortright told DailyMail.com that the allegations were “completely untrue, fabricated and filed to extract a settlement from the Fairmont.”

He added that “the lawsuit was dismissed without any admission of any liability.”

In March, a second lawsuit was filed against the resorts in Alameda County Superior Court by another woman, a 48-year-old from Tennessee, also identified as Jane Doe.

She alleged that a masseuse named Vincent Ahern, 53, groped and penetrated her during an hour-long massage at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn in September 2022.

Her husband had booked the massage for her as a treat after they won the stay at a charity auction.

But in the lawsuit, Doe said her life “changed forever when she was exposed to a sexual predator by a global hotel chain she trusted.”

It adds: “Vincent James Ahern sexually assaulted Ms. Doe while she was trapped in a dark massage room with no safe escape.

‘He grabbed her legs and pulled them open. He then inserted his fingers into her vagina for about a minute.”

Doe felt ‘sick’ and went to tell her husband what had happened. They told hotel manager Edward Roe, who called the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and offered to reimburse the couple for the massage.

The lawsuit said: “As if such trivial signs could excuse an assault and a profound breach of trust.”

Doe said the San Francisco Chronicle that after she reported the incident to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, deputies tried to dissuade her from filing charges.

She said officers emphasized how long and grueling the process would be, telling her it was a “your word against his” situation.

She told the newspaper: ‘I got the impression this was a waste of time. I felt so lost and defeated. Someone in authority said there was nothing I could do.”

In the latest lawsuit, the plaintiff claims the incidents are just the latest in a series of allegations against staff at the two resorts.

The lawsuit alleges: “In the years leading up to the Cortright attack, including the year before, multiple female massage customers complained to the hotel defendants that their massage therapists had sexually assaulted them during massages.

“They did not investigate the allegations, discipline the massage therapists, or implement their own prevention method.

‘Unbelievable that sexual violence has been going on at the neighboring sister hotel of the Claremont Hotel & Spa for more than twenty years.’

The lawsuit lists more than a dozen separate incidents that attorney Micah Liberty – who represented Jane Does – are “confirmed allegations of which the Fairmonts have been made aware.”

Liberty told DailyMail.com: ‘It’s no surprise that we’re seeing multiple allegations of these types of horrific abuses, yet the corporate entity is taking no real steps to clean up practices and hold people accountable.

‘It is not enough to fire one perpetrator. There are cheap and easy solutions, but these entities look the other way time and time again because they make money.

‘These hotels have a culture of cover-up and abuse. It’s rare that there are locations like these two where there are multiple reports and they just allow the abuse to continue without any real reforms. We know that if there is no real accountability, they will do it again.”

DailyMail.com contacted Accor Hotel & Resorts for comment.