Source : the age
When Sarah Rose was a young aspiring ballerina, chiropractor Dr Ian Rossborough had a reputation among Melbourne’s elite dance world as a “Mr Fix-It” for injuries.
She first met Rossborough for a torn hamstring when she was just 10 years old, following an injury that occurred as a result of a gruelling dance training regimen and trying to perfect her turnout.
Steven Siewert
Rose says that Rossborough, who shot to prominence a decade ago when he was accused of dangerously cracking the spine of a four-day-old baby, told her he admired her discipline and maturity and said he wanted to help her achieve her dream of being a professional ballet dancer.
He recommended she see him every four to six weeks for ongoing treatments and chiropractic manipulations.
Rose, who gave permission for her name to be published, was one of several young Melbourne dancers who were treated by Rossborough over many years.
She is also one of at least two women who have accused him of grooming and sexual abuse when they were children.
“He had this belief that he was very much the best and the most important in the world at what he does and we as dancers were lucky to have him in our corner and supporting us,” Rose, who is now 25, says.
Last September, the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court found Rossborough guilty of four counts of sexual assault and grooming of a child aged 16 to 17 for an assault on Rose.
He was given a two-year Community Correction Order and is now a convicted sex offender.
Rossborough was suspended from working as a chiropractor by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) last year and has surrendered his registration.
This masthead can reveal that another alleged victim, who was also a young dancer treated by the chiropractor, has contacted police and alleges she was groomed and sexually abused by Rossborough over a period of almost three years when she was a teenager. The woman says she was referred to Rossborough by her dance school.
Following the criminal case last year, the alleged victim, who is now in her 30s and spoke to this masthead on the condition of anonymity, submitted a 13-page statement of allegations against Rossborough to AHPRA.
The national healthcare watchdog is conducting its own investigation into Rossborough. The woman hopes the matter will be referred to a civil tribunal, which examines the most severe complaints against Australian health practitioners, and will allow her to have her allegations heard.
“The injustice of it really weighs on me,” she says. “I strongly believe he’s still a threat to the community, which is what prompted me to follow through with this.”
In the statement, seen by this masthead, the woman alleges that Rossborough told her after the sexual abuse began: “You have the power to destroy me, if you ever tell anyone”.
“I now feel deep discomfort and distress when I reflect on what occurred,” she wrote in her statement.
“It is confronting to recognise that Ian took advantage of my youth, vulnerability, and impressionable nature.
“I was a young and emotionally vulnerable girl when I met him, and he exploited the imbalance of power.”
When Sarah Rose turned 14, Rossborough gave her his personal phone number, telling her she could bypass his long waiting list whenever she needed to see him.
He started texting her regularly and confided in her about his personal life and divorce.
He called her his “good buddy”, and invited her to do yoga classes with him.
Rose says her appointments with Rossborough were only meant to be 15 minutes, but he would often stretch them out to an hour without charging her.
“All my focus was on my career. Dance was my entire identity,” Rose says.
“Dance gave me a chance to process all my emotions of the world, but it is really hard to look back now and realise how much I was ignoring and shoving down just to cope.”
On the night she was assaulted, Rose was 17 and about to fly overseas for a life-changing summer program at the Washington Ballet.
Rossborough promised to help get her body into the best physical shape before she left and, under the guise of helping her lose weight, instructed her to use the sauna in a yoga studio next to his clinic and strip completely naked before entering.
About 45 minutes later, Rossborough came into the sauna took off his clothes and sexually assaulted Rose.
“I just froze when it happened,” Rose says. “He was my lift home that night, so I knew no one was coming to get me, and no one was there to help. I remember thinking, ‘You have no other way home … Just act normal. Don’t let him know you’re freaking out’.”
After a video of him manipulating the spine of a newborn went viral across the world in 2016, Rossborough was temporarily banned from treating children while he was investigated by the nation’s medical watchdog.
In the footage, Rossborough flexes the baby’s back before pressing firmly on her spine triggering a cracking sound. The sudden movement causes the baby to cry.
Rossborough vehemently defended his actions at the time, but his conduct was condemned by the medical industry, who warned there was a lack of evidence on the efficacy and safety of the practice to treat conditions such as colic and reflux.
In a televised interview with Channel Ten in May 2016, Rossborough conceded the chiropractic profession was “light on clinical trials”, but insisted his treatment methods, including spinal manipulation of babies, was not damaging.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years … if there was a problem somewhere, if there was any injury somewhere, I would know about it,” he said.
Following the scandal, Rossborough was later allowed to treat young children again, but chiropractors across Australia were banned from performing spinal manipulation on infants under the age of two.
Rose, who remained a patient during this time, says she remembers Rossborough telling her his actions had been distorted by the media.
Over many years, the court found Rossborough groomed Rose and her family, who were unaware of what was occurring and “worshipped him”.
It was not until a physical therapy session to treat her injured hip in 2022 that Rose was consumed by flashbacks of the assault.
Rose, who now works as a dance teacher in Sydney, says her fear that other young girls could have been sexually abused by Rossborough compelled her to go to police.
“There have been two times when I feel like my life has been split,” Rose says.
“There was the night I was assaulted, and then the day I decided to go to the police.
“I lost my early 20s to going through a police investigation and trying to bring a sense of justice. I never want this to happen to anyone else. That’s why I can’t keep silent any more.”
Earlier this year, AHPRA confirmed more than 100 current and former healthcare practitioners have had their sexual misconduct findings permanently added to their records on the national regulator’s searchable public register as part of long-overdue reforms.
Rossborough was contacted for comment multiple times, but did not respond before deadline.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or Lifeline (13 11 14).
