These women went to see him to try to relieve knee pain, chest pain, back pain, painful periods. They came in confidence to see this 76-year-old man who says he has a “gift” because they were advised by a loved one or relative, but all describe the same “consultation”. In the living room of the house of the magnetizer of Tonnay-Boutonne, these women aged between their twenties and over 70, mainly from Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres or Gironde told investigators that they had been assaulted, sometimes raped, by the hands of this man. The latter denies everything and recognizes only “consensual therapeutic massages”. It is judged from this Monday, September 12 before the Court of Assizes of the Dordogne in Périgueux. The trial will last a week, until Monday, September 19.
More than 2,000 meetings between 2019 and 2020
This 76-year-old man who has lived in Tonnay-Boutonne in Charente-Maritime for thirty years claims to have had this “gift” since the age of 12. He wishes “helping others for free”. He claimed to receive people from all over France. In his appointment diary, the investigators found more than 2,000 appointments between April 2019 and August 2020. This man who had several jobs before devoting himself to his activity as a magnetizer receives at home in his living room. The kitchen serves as a waiting room. This man affirms that he never directly touches the people he receives, except in certain cases and that each time, he asks for their consent.
The 16 women who accuse him went to see him between 2012 and 2020. They say he touched them often claiming to have spotted a problem in the groin before lowering his hand to their private parts. Some explain to the investigators that they left the magnetizer’s house on the spot. Others, paralyzed, tell of having squeezed their legs as hard as possible while waiting for it to stop.
A trial in the Dordogne one of the victims works at the Saintes courthouse
The facts denounced took place in Charente-Maritime, still in the house of the accused in Tonnay-Boutonne. The trial was therefore to take place at the Assize Court of Saintes but it was disoriented, that is to say entrusted to another Assize Court because one of the victims is a magistrate at the Saintes courthouse.
This young woman did not immediately file a complaint. In 2018, when she consulted this magnetizer, she had just arrived in the region to take up her post at the Saintes courthouse and she did not want to expose this case. She will finally do it two years later in 2020 because she realized that the man she accuses is implicated by another young woman for similar facts and that she must intervene in this case as magistrate. It’s a click. The young woman relinquished the case and decided to file a complaint for sexual assault.
New testimonies after articles from Sud Ouest
A third woman filed a complaint the day she claimed to have been attacked in August 2020. The magnetizer was arrested and indicted in the following days. Following articles in the Sud Ouest newspaper on this affair, other women decided to file a complaint. In all, 16 women denounce acts of rape and sexual assault against this magnetizer. Among them, 13 joined as civil parties and will be represented by lawyers at the hearing.
Since his arrest in August 2020, this man is in pre-trial detention in Vienne. All of his requests for release prior to this trial have been denied. He has already been implicated by his granddaughter for acts of sexual assault when she was a child. This complaint was dismissed. During the investigation, his two stepdaughters also accused him of rape and sexual assault when they were children. This man denies these facts and believes that his family wants revenge on him.