Intelligent. Successful. So why did Joanne trust the 'psychic healer' who abused her in his seedy flat? Michael Ireland, 41, admitted total of 25 offences against eight women Joanne Mulholland thought he might be able to help her back problem With hindsight she admits wishing that she had 'run for the hills earlier' Ireland's offences included five counts of sexual assault against her She was initially impressed with his diagnosis and was 'desperate' for help But said she feels 'only pity' for the 'despicable and revolting conman' By Alison Smith Squire Traumatised: Joanne Mulholland, 41, went to Michael Ireland after it was suggested that the 'psychic healer' could help her with her severe scoliosis Joanne Mulholland is the sort of person who tries to see the best in people. A softly spoken and gentle soul, her approach to life is not to make snap judgments about others and always to give them the benefit of the doubt. Tragically, it's this very trusting nature that led her onto the couch of Michael Ireland, an alternative therapist who claimed he could heal her of the chronic and debilitating back condition she has suffered since she was a teenager. Joanne, 41, has severe scoliosis - a twisted spine - a condition that often leaves her in agony and which two operations failed to ease. So when it was suggested that Ireland could help her with his so-called "psychic surgery" treatment - which involved the laying on of his hands on parts of her fully clothed body - she felt she had nothing to lose. The more she got to know her therapist, the more Joanne grew to trust him. And when his methods grew increasingly more intimate, she dismissed any niggling concerns because she truly believed that his unorthodox treatment was finally bringing her some respite from the decades of pain she had endured. It culminated in Ireland launching a series of squalid sexual assaults on her - with Joanne, at one stage, fearing he would rape her. Today, the divorced mother-of-three from Bolton is devastated by his betrayal of her trust and wishes she had listened to those early nagging doubts. Ireland, 60, was jailed this week after admitting five counts of sexual assault against her. The conman, from Stockport, admitted a total of 25 offences against eight women, including indecent assault and sexual activity with a child. Jailed: Conman Michael Ireland admitted 25 offences, including the indecent assault of a child, and five counts of sexual assault against Mrs Mulholland These crimes happened over a 25-year period, with one of his victims - a girl aged 15 - left so badly traumatised that she took an overdose. The court also heard Ireland, who was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment, already had a conviction for indecently assaulting a girl under 14 when he was a teenager. So how on earth did such a man gain the confidence of so many, often well-educated, women? It is a question Joanne, who has waived her anonymity to speak to the Mail, has asked herself many times. "With hindsight, of course, I wonder why on earth I didn't run for the hills earlier," she admits. But Mike had convinced me that the touching was a necessary and legitimate form of treatment, and in the same way that I would not question a GP who told me that he needed to perform an intimate examination, I didn't question him. Unacceptable: Mulholland's 'psychic surgery' treatment involved the laying on of his hands on parts of Mrs Mulholland's fully clothed body You just have faith that these people are being professional and have only your best interests in mind. Certainly, with an honours degree in IT and having held down a job as an analyst until the birth of her youngest child, now ten, Joanne never considered herself the sort to fall for the patter of a manipulative conman. She first came into contact with Ireland in October 2009, when stress caused by the break-up of her 11-year marriage to husband Stephen, an IT manager, made her back pain so intolerable that she was taking up to 14 painkillers a day. But then a friend suggested it might be worth trying an alternative approach. Joanne says: "She told me about Michael Ireland, whom she met through a Spiritual Church to which she belonged. She said he was doing a talk at the church on healing and asked me if I would like to go along. Inside the hall, packed mostly with women, Joanne, was hugely impressed by what she saw. "A woman lay on a table and Mike asked her where the pain was," she recalls. She pointed to her side and he held his hands over her body. He barely touched her, but when she got up, she said she felt better. Ireland then singled out Joanne. "I now wonder if he targeted me because he sensed my vulnerability," she says. I lay down on the table and he hovered his hands up and down my body as if he was scanning it. He mentioned my twisted back straightaway and said my spine was misaligned. In hindsight, he probably made a lucky guess because, in some clothes it is possible to see something is wrong with my back. But I was so desperate for someone to do something, I was simply impressed he'd diagnosed my condition so quickly. Ireland told Joanne that she needed a series of appointments with him to cure her back pain. "He said he believed it could be healed with a therapy known as "psychic surgery." Laying his hands on certain energy points in the body, he would be guided by spirits to straighten my back. Joanne asked for time to think about it and was surprised, and touched, when two months later Ireland tracked her down on Facebook to ask how she was. "By then, my back was in a terrible way," she says. And since that first meeting with him I'd read up on spiritual healing and found many people really believed it had helped them. At around £30 a session with Mike, I felt it was worth a go. She adds: "I discovered he'd been practising healing for more than 40 years and seemed respected at the spiritual churches where he performed. His website said he did charity evenings for good causes. I did my research and there appeared to be no reason not to trust him. A week later, Joanne turned up at his flat in Stockport where he held private one-to-one therapy sessions in his dining room. She says: "Seeing where he lived came as a shock. It was in a shabby part of town and his flat was on the sixth floor of a tower block. But when I got inside he was very welcoming and made me a cup of tea while we had a chat and I felt immediately at ease. Then Ireland led her into his dining room. She recalls: "It wasn't a proper therapy room, but he did have a therapy couch. I was fully clothed in jeans and a jumper and he laid his hands on various "energy points" on my back and front - but nothing was inappropriate." After paying Ireland, she says she believed the therapy had worked as she felt immediate relief in her back. Perhaps it was just psychosomatic - or a sign of her desperate need to find a cure, any cure. So, from then on, she had approximately two sessions a week for the next eight weeks. Joanne says: "Encouraged by Mike I reduced my painkillers and felt more mobile. Looking back I think I so desperately wanted this treatment to work that I convinced myself it was. In those early sessions, Ireland did not behave inappropriately and Joanne soon began to regard him as a friend and trusted confidant. "He was a good listener," she says. He had a strong, calm voice and seemed to understand my suffering. Keen to learn more about spiritual healing, Joanne enrolled on one of his group courses held at his flat, where participants tested their healing powers on one another. It was at one of these classes that Ireland asked Joanne to try to "heal" him. "Everyone else had gone home," she says. But I stayed to have my usual session. Instead, though, he lay down on the couch and asked me to scan his body with my hands. As my hands hovered over the top of his trousers, he said that he was impotent. Then he asked if I would give him some healing. My initial response was to recoil in horror, but then he appeared upset and said he had never told anyone else this, but trusted me so much he felt he could confide in me. Ireland unzipped his trousers and asked Joanne to place her hands on his crotch area. I left my hands there only for a moment and withdrew them when I felt him becoming aroused. At first I felt shocked, but then he thanked me, saying he was so ashamed of his impotence that he couldn't face seeing a doctor. As unbelievable as it sounds now, I felt sorry for him. Joanne admits she feels foolish, humilated and embarrassed that she did not realise what Ireland's motives were. However, as became apparent at his trial, she was not alone. Desperate: Mrs Mulholland met the conman through a Spiritual Church and was initially impressed by his early diagnosis, saying she was 'desperate' for help Judge Mushtaq Khokhar, who sentenced Ireland, said of his victims: "They could not bring themselves to believe that it was abuse. The relationship was very much akin to that between a doctor and a patient, which entails an enormous amount of trust. Joanne says: "Now I can see how cleverly he built up my trust and loyalty - the group sessions, the talks, the sessions when he didn't do anything inappropriate - it was all done to ensure that he was nothing but respectable and genuine. The fact that so many of his victims were fooled for so long is testament to how skilful a manipulator he was. True to form, Ireland behaved impeccably at the session following the crotch-touching episode, but at the one after that he took advantage of Joanne again. She says: "His hands moved down under my jumper until his fingers were under my bra. Then, referring to my breasts, he said: "I need to touch you there. That's why you are in so much pain. Your energy point is totally blocked."" He then pressed his hands on her breasts for nearly a minute before the session ended. "I felt very uncomfortable about what he had just done," she says. I paid him and left. My instincts were telling me that what he had done was not right, but, as bizarre as it sounds, I felt guilty for doubting him. After all, he'd explained to me that healing was all about touching the chakras, the energy points, on the body. Why couldn't they be on my breasts? The breast-touching happened at two further sessions. Each time, Ireland would ask Joanne "are you all right with this?," making it seem as if it was something he didn't want to do but had to for healing purposes. The final straw came when, in July 2010, she went for a therapy session only to be told her vagina was "dead." Joanne says: "He said to loosen the chakras he needed to feel my private parts. He slipped his fingers into my underwear. By then I was frightened because he was aroused, but feared that if I pushed him away he might become aggressive or even rape me. When the session ended, Joanne fled in tears but, fearful of ridicule, told no one of her ordeal until a friend contacted her a month later. Joanne says: "My friend heard through local gossip that a girl had made a complaint to the police about Mike, claiming he'd sexually assaulted her. When my friend remarked that it might not be true, I began to sob and told her what had happened to me. Encouraged by her friend, Joanne went to the police to report that she, too, had been assaulted by Ireland. She was horrified to learn that many other women had also come forward, all telling the same story - that they'd been told parts of them were "dead" and could only be re-awakened by Ireland's intimate touching. Joanne, who recently qualified as a holistic therapist herself, is now writing a book to try to deal with what has happened. "Coming to terms with the abuse has been a struggle and I have had nightmares about it," she says. For a long time, I lost my confidence - I just couldn't accept that I had been targeted and abused by somebody I was convinced wanted only to help me. I feel sad that being such a trusting person became my undoing. Michael Ireland is a despicable and revolting conman, but I feel only pity for him. I am a strong person and I will not allow his actions to ruin my life.