MANCHESTER, NH – A city man was given a suspended sentence for molesting a teenage girl at a gym he owns on Elm Street.
Terry Dow, 52, owner of Training Station Fitness and Martial Arts Gym, 200 Elm St., pleaded guilty in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District to two counts of simple assault against a 16-year-old girl.
The assaults took place on the afternoon of May 18, 2024, at a time when there were no classes taking place at the gym and no members were present. The only people in the gym were an instructor, who was in a different area of the building, Dow and the teenager who was cleaning the girls changing room.
According to prosecutors, the teen and her father were members of Dow’s gym since the girl was about 5-years-old. Dow, characterizing the victim as a troubled youth, offered to become a mentor to her, working and talking with her as she volunteered at the gym.
The day of the assault, Dow picked the girl up at her home and brought her to the gym.
As she was cleaning the girl’s changing room, Dow entered it and asked her if she would like a massage. “No thank you,” she said. Prosecutors said Dow persisted and she again declined his offer of a massage.
But Dow still reached under her shirt and began to rub his hands over the teenager’s back and shoulders despite her clear indication that she did not consent.
Afterwards, Dow told the teen not tell her parents. However, the girl did confide in trusted adults that day, and a police investigation began.
Police determined that Dow’s actions amounted to assault and detectives established probable cause to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Dow pleaded guilty to two counts of simple assault and was sentenced to two consecutive 12-month sentences, all suspended for a period of 5 years on condition he undergo a psychosexual evaluation, comply with all recommendations, and have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.