Osteopath Daniele Caminiti fled to Italy after the allegations were made against him. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to alleged sexual abuse.
An osteopath had his registration cancelled after the ACT’s civil tribunal found he sexually assaulted a patient, although the orders were made in his absence as he left the country for Italy shortly after the claims emerged.
Daniele Caminiti, an Italian citizen, worked as an osteopath in Singapore before moving to Australia and began practising in Canberra in 2022.
It was alleged he massaged a female patient’s genitals then digitally raped her during a consultation that year. She said she immediately jumped up and said, “What are you doing?”
Afterwards, he allegedly accessed her confidential patient file without consent to obtain her mobile phone number, then sent her a text message.
“I want you to know how ashamed and sorry I feel for what happened. I am not that kind of person, I have never done anything like that before,” he said in the message.
“I am not expecting you to come and see me again, but please don’t mention this to anyone, it could jeopardise my entire career, destroy my family.”
Caminiti’s employer soon informed him that they had learned of serious allegations against him and that he should not return to work. He later wrote back to resign and deny the allegations.
He then left Australia for Italy, just five days after the patient had come forward with her allegations.
In a statement to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT), the patient stated that she did not inform anyone about what happened on the day of the incident.
“I kept replaying in my mind what happened, trying to make sense of it all,” she said.
“Every hour I was crying, I didn’t know who to tell, I was so scared and embarrassed.
“He was my practitioner and I trusted him.”
The Osteopathy Board of Australia, which suspended Caminiti’s registration in 2022, took the case to ACAT. Caminiti did not participate in the proceedings, despite being contacted about them.
ACAT’s Presidential Member Juliet Lucy said she was satisfied the allegations had been substantiated and thought it was appropriate to reprimand Caminiti’s conduct, cancel his registration and disqualify him from applying for registration for seven years.
She said while Caminiti denied the allegations in a letter to his employer, the text message he sent to the patient was “an admission of wrongdoing” and corroborated the allegations.
“Mr Caminiti did not provide any evidence to contradict the allegations, nor did he challenge them by participating in the tribunal proceedings,” she said.
Presidential Member Lucy found Caminiti massaged the patient’s genitals then digitally raped her, and accessed her confidential patient record to obtain her phone number before texting her.
She accepted his text message, “should not be taken as a genuine expression of remorse or insight as it was self-serving and sent for the purpose of discouraging a report”.
“Mr Caminiti’s conduct has the capacity to significantly erode trust in the profession, particularly among female and vulnerable patients,” the presidential member said in her decision from late last month.
She ordered him to pay the Osteopathy Board’s legal costs.
Since Caminiti fled Australia, he has been practising as an osteopath at two locations in Italy.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.
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