A Free Massage Gets Gay Man Arrested {Now The Sentence}

Update on story: Sentecing

In OTTAWA  and  in hindsight, Elias Elhitti's remark to the man lying naked on his massage table -- he had complimented the man's buff body -- could have been considered flirtatious.

But Elhitti seriously misinterpreted the man's response -- "thank you, I work out three days a week" -- and laid a creamy hand on the man's privates.

"For (the victim), they were innocent comments," Judge David Paciocco said Tuesday.

He gave Elhitti, 42, a suspended sentence and two years of probation after convicting Elhitti of sexual assault in November.

"This was an attempt at seduction," Paciocco said, not a "predatory, premeditated sexual assault."

Elhitti had invited the victim for a November 2008 appointment at his Bank St. hair salon and spa through a Facebook message promising a free massage.

Elhitti testified that was obvious gay code for "man-on-man action."

The victim -- who came across in testimony as honest, naive and fiercely heterosexual -- didn't clue in.

Paciocco called it a "crude and deceptive form of cruising."

"The use of massage ... was a representation that was false and created trust in the victim that enabled this offence to occur," he said.

But Elhitti has suffered a great deal of publicity and ridicule and bears "the scarlet letter of stigma," Paciocco said.

Elhitti has also spent 26 months under strict bail conditions.

"I think you've learned a serious lesson," Paciocco said

TONY SPEARS, QMI AGENCY