UPTON, Massachusetts -- A Russian pioneer of underwater births has been jailed after pleading innocent to charges he had sexually assaulted a woman. A second woman has filed a similar complaint, police said.
Igor Charkovsky, who considers himself the father of sea births, was arraigned on charges of assault and battery and indecent assault and battery. Charkovsky, 59, was ordered held on $10,000 bail, pending a pretrial hearing Jan. 29.
Police were called last Thursday by a counselor at a rape crisis center where a woman alleged she was attacked the night before, Upton Police Chief Robert Miller said.
Police spoke with Charkovsky at a home in Upton where he has been living and conducting clinics. But when officers returned to arrest him Friday, they found he had packed his things and left.
Charkovsky was tracked to the Boston suburb of Brookline, where other Russians had taken him in. He was arrested Sunday night.
On Monday afternoon, a second woman told police Charkovsky had assaulted her at his clinic and additional charges were filed. Both complainants said they were clients of Charkovsky, Upton police said.
Although he has no medical training, Charkovsky has a dedicated -- if controversial -- following in Russia, where his techniques have been banned by health authorities. Charkovsky started experimenting on how animals adapt to water in the 1960s and later declared that water births could produce smarter and stronger children. As long as the umbilical cord remains intact, the newborn baby does yet not need to breathe through his lungs, he has said.
The former Soviet swimming coach advocates dips in ice water for both pregnant women and newborns, along with physical training and swimming for babies right after birth.
Igor Charkovsky, who considers himself the father of sea births, was arraigned on charges of assault and battery and indecent assault and battery. Charkovsky, 59, was ordered held on $10,000 bail, pending a pretrial hearing Jan. 29.
Police were called last Thursday by a counselor at a rape crisis center where a woman alleged she was attacked the night before, Upton Police Chief Robert Miller said.
Police spoke with Charkovsky at a home in Upton where he has been living and conducting clinics. But when officers returned to arrest him Friday, they found he had packed his things and left.
Charkovsky was tracked to the Boston suburb of Brookline, where other Russians had taken him in. He was arrested Sunday night.
On Monday afternoon, a second woman told police Charkovsky had assaulted her at his clinic and additional charges were filed. Both complainants said they were clients of Charkovsky, Upton police said.
Although he has no medical training, Charkovsky has a dedicated -- if controversial -- following in Russia, where his techniques have been banned by health authorities. Charkovsky started experimenting on how animals adapt to water in the 1960s and later declared that water births could produce smarter and stronger children. As long as the umbilical cord remains intact, the newborn baby does yet not need to breathe through his lungs, he has said.
The former Soviet swimming coach advocates dips in ice water for both pregnant women and newborns, along with physical training and swimming for babies right after birth.