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| “ | I gave both those women exactly what they wanted. | „ |
| ~ Hensley rationalizing the rapes he committed |
Dr. Joshua Henley is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Dearly Beloved". He is a psychiatrist who rapes women, including his fiancée, and then brainwashes them into believing that they wanted to have sex with him.
He was portrayed by T.J. Thyne.
Early life[]
Hensley was a psychiatrist with a successful practice, specializing in treating women with depression and low self-esteem. Underneath his charisma and compassionate bedside manner, however, he was a sexual predator who raped several women, some of them his own patients, and later brainwashed them into believing that they had consensual sex. His act was so convincing that he even manipulated one of his victims, his former patient Lana Stallworth, into breaking up with her boyfriend and accepting his marriage proposal,
Three months before the events of the episode, he raped his patient Kitty Bennett during a session. After he brainwashed her, he continued sleeping with her behind Lana's back.
"Dearly Beloved"[]
Eventually, Kitty realized what Hensley did to her, and crashes his wedding to accuse him of raping her in front of his Lana and their friends and family. The priest officiating the wedding calls the NYPD's Special Victims Unit, and Captain Olivia Benson and Detective Amanda Rollins talk to Kitty, who describes the circumstances of the rape. Hensley, meanwhile, claims he has never met Kitty, and Lana says that she believes her husband.
Rollins and her partner, Detective Dominick Carisi Jr., find no record of a session between Kitty and Hensley; they also talk to another of Hensley's patients who says that Kitty stalked her on social media and several men whom she accused of being sexually inappropriate with her. When Benson and Rollins confront Kitty, she admits to "crossing the line", and reveals that Hensley impregnated her. Hensley reluctantly submits to a DNA test that reveals that he is the baby's father, so Rollins and Carisi arrest him.
When Benson interrogates him, Hensley claims that he had a consensual affair with Kitty after picking her up at a bar, and that she had even given him a key to her apartment. Rollins and Carisi find security footage from Kitty's apartment building of her and Hensley kissing, so Benson and Rollins again question Kitty, who says that Hensley talked her out of going to the police after he raped her by convincing her that she had an "erotic rape fantasy disorder", and that they had dated for a few months afterward.
While Hensley is out on bail, Kitty breaks into the apartment he shares with Kitty and holds a broken bottle to Hensley's throat, threatening to kill him unless he admits he raped her. Benson and Rollins are called to the scene and try to talk her down as a terrified Hensley tells Kitty that he can help her. When Kitty accuses Hensley of brainwashing her by saying she needed help with her "rape fantasies", Lana recognizes language that he used with her, and accuses Hensley of raping her, as well. Kitty lets Hensley go, and Benson and Rollins arrest him again.
After Lana agrees to testify against Hensley, Benson interrogates him, and he arrogantly tells Benson that he gave Kitty and Lana "exactly wanted that they wanted". He is nevertheless convicted of rape and imprisoned.
External links[]
- Joshua Hensley on the Law & Order Wiki
