A celebrity osteopath revealed as one of London’s most prolific voyeurs who spied on thousands of women has been jailed for more than three years.
Torben Hersborg, 64, abused his status as a world-renowned clinician to secretly record his patients as they undressed.
He was arrested in December last year while prowling around a north London student halls, using a telescopic camera to peep into bedrooms to record young women as they got undressed.
Analysis of storage devices, camera equipment, and hard drives then revealed the full, horrifying truth - that Hersborg is a prolific sex offender who had spent the past 12 years habitually upskirting women in public, recording them in their own homes, taking films as they showered, and even capture some having sex.
At Snaresbrook crown court on Tuesday, Hersborg was sentenced by Judge Timothy Greene to three years and five months in prison and placed him on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
“This is a gross breach of trust”, said the judge. “You betrayed your clients who trusted you and relied on you.”
Alex Weichselbaum, a Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS in north London, said Hersborg “operated in plain sight for too long”.
“Having targeted thousands of women over 12 years, we believe the scale and significance of his offending makes him one of London’s most prolific voyeurs”, he said.
“His meticulously planned acts included setting up secret cameras in his clinic and covertly filming women - both in public and when they thought they were in the privacy of their own homes.
“Hersborg deliberately abused the trust of his unwitting patients by filming them in intimate positions and targeted strangers for his own sexual gratification.
“Women should be free to live their lives without unwanted intrusion – particularly from sexual offenders like Hersborg who deliberately chose to film or photograph them in their most private or intimate moments.”
The court heard Hersborg had been spotted lurking in his car close to a north London university halls by a local resident, who called police in December last year.
Hersborg, a married father of two, was found by officers lying on the back seat of his car, on top of a layer of black bin liners, wearing black gloves, and in possession of a camcorder and a telescopic lens.
“You had worked out that students in the building felt they didn’t need to have the curtains or blinds drawn, they thought they wouldn’t be seen”, said the judge. “You had worked out that with the right equipment and laying on the back seat, you could in fact film them in their private moments.”
Met Police officers raided Hersborg’s family home in east London and seized his electronic devices, finding thousands of images and films he had amassed since 2012.
This drew officers to Hersborg’s place of work, the Central London Osteopathy and Sports Clinic in Old Street, where he had installed a hidden camera inside his treatment room.
The clinic boasted a host of well-known clients including Olympic athletes, celebrities and the Italian Serie A mens football team Brescia.
Prosecutor Chris Hewertson said videos “show females initially wearing clothing on their upper body but then the females remove the clothing from their upper body and their breasts are exposed”.
Hersborg is seen to “manipulate” the women’s bodies while treating them “so that their breasts are visible on camera” and also in order to film their private areas when their underwear move to the side, the court heard.
Mr Hewertson said Hersborg had used “sophisticated” camera equipment to covertly film topless women on the beach, zooming in on their breasts and buttocks, as well as so-called “upskirt” videos of women at bus stops and walking in the street.
And the court heard he had, between 2016 and 2024, used his telescopic camera equipment to film inside random women’s homes.
Mr Hewertson said Hersborg’s videos captured women naked or semi-naked, getting in and out of the shower, in their bedrooms, and in some case engaging in sexual acts.
Hersborg, a Danish national and friend since childhood of actor Mads Mikkelsen, pleaded guilty to eight counts of voyeurism, and has been held in custody since his arrest last December.
He was on a videolink from HMP Pentonville for Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, and suffered a head injury when he collapsed through stress midway through the hearing.
His barrister, Adrian Eissa KC, said Hersborg had confessed to his crimes swiftly after being caught, and he feels “profound guilt and shame on a daily basis”.
The court heard his marriage has collapsed and he is set to be barred from future practice as an osteopath.
“He does have a different side to him – for a large part of his life, he has been a productive, hard-working, family man”, he added.
“Unfortunately, this is a terrible fatal flaw which has served to destroy his life on many levels.”
The judge imposed a sexual harm prevention order, which will stop Hersborg carrying a camera or telescopic lens in public when he is released from prison.
Hersborg, of Peartree Lane in Wapping, is set to serve 40 per cent of his sentence of three-years-and-five months before being considered for release.
