A celebrity osteopath is facing years in prison after admitting secretly spying on people more than 2,000 times in a ten-year campaign of voyeurism.
Torben Hersborg, 63, was first arrested and charged in December last year after he was caught using a camera and telescope to record female university students as they got undressed.
He admitted voyeurism on three days when his car had been spotted loitering in the area, and he agreed to co-operate with detectives investigating the contents of electronic devices seized from his vehicle and east London family home.
Detectives then uncovered a mass of videos and images which showed he had been upskirting women and secretly recording people in private in offences which dated back to 2012.
At Snaresbrook crown court on Thursday, Hersborg appeared on a videolink from HMP Pentonville to plead guilty to a further five charges of voyeurism, covering at least 2117 incidents between March 2012 and November last year.
Most of the charges related to him “recording a person doing a private act”, and Hersborg also admitted at least 86 incidents of upskirting between November 2019 and August last year.
When the charges were first brought, it was revealed Hersborg was accused of spying on clients at the Central London Osteopathy and Sports Clinic in Old Street, central London, where he was the director.
He also faced allegations of recording victims “on beaches, footpaths, roads and bus stops”, and also targeted students at their halls of residence in King’s Cross.
Hersborg, a childhood friend of actor Mads Mikkelsen, has been working as an osteopath since the 1990s, and counted tennis champion Caroline Wozniacki as a top client.
His website also boasted of work with Italian Serie A football team Brescia, being “trusted by Olympic champions”, and his social media feed includes a video of a treatment session with Strictly Come Dancing contestant Viscountess Emma Weymouth as well as pictures posing with DJ Fearne Cotton, Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance, Olympic sprinter Yohan Blake, and musicians Ronnie Wood and Beverley Knight.
After Hersborg first admitted charges of voyeurism, The Standard revealed how he has a past conviction for upskirting from 1995 which did not thwart his career.
Inspired by watching pornography on TV, Hersborg took out camcorder hidden in a plastic bag to film women as they used the escalator on the London Underground system.
News reports of his court hearing record that Hersborg was arrested at Leicester Square station on July 2, 1995, and told police he “did not see anything wrong” with his activities.
He had reportedly toured Tube stations and Camden market in north London, and a prosecutor said of his arrest: “He was standing at the bottom of the stairs but made no attempt to go up them.
“He was holding a purple plastic bag containing a rectangular box, and he was paying particular attention to women going up the escalator.”
Hersborg’s video was still recording when he was stopped by police, and he admitted taking films of women up their skirts, later admitting he did it “simply for illicit thrills”. He received a £500 fine.
Hersborg was arrested in late December 2024 outside the Chapter student halls of residence in Islington, after a member of the public spotted his distinctive Lexus loitering in the area.
A magistrates court was told the member of the public had made repeated attempts to report Hersborg’s suspicious behaviour, and on at least one occasion police did not response to the call for help.
On December 21 last year, when he was arrested, he was seen crawling around in the car while peering out of the window at the student halls.
The building, which is home to students, has floor-to-ceiling windows and Hersborg had parked on Collier Street so that he could peer into the room. Chillingly, black bin liners had also been laid down on the back seat.
He was initially found with a video of a young woman wearing just a t-shirt, and he captured images of her buttocks as she bent over.
A second student was filmed sitting on her bed, and a third woman was recorded by Hersborg in her bra as she got dressed.
When he was arrested, Hersborg had a camera and a telescope in the car, and claimed he was on the back seat of his car to “relax“.
Hersborg, who is married with a grown-up daughter, told officers he had been to his club in Chelsea for a drink after a judo training session, and he had stopped in King’s Cross as it was halfway to his home in Wapping, east London.
But he later admitted voyeurism and offered to help police investigate the full extent of his crimes, knowing that he had the stash of videos and images on his electronic devices.
In January this year, his professional regulator, the General Osteopathic Council, issued a statement saying Hersborg is now facing fitness to practice proceedings and has been suspended.
“We require all osteopaths to meet the Osteopathic Practice Standards which sets standards around knowledge, skills and behaviours for osteopaths and requires osteopaths to practise safely. If a concern is raised that calls this into question, we can investigate this and take action where necessary to protect patients and the public.”
The regulator said Hersborg’s 1995 conviction was known about when he joined the professional register, and it said no complaints had been made against him until his arrest in late 2024.
Hersborg, of Peartree Lane in Wapping, has been remanded in custody until sentencing in July, and was warned a lengthy prison sentence is likely.
