The magnetism session turns to touching: 8 months suspended for a septuagenarian

Jean-Claude’s hands flutter above Elodie’s body⁽¹⁾. The young woman who suffers from psychic problems is in a session of magnetism. She feels strong caresses that start from her feet, go up the inside of her thighs to massage her chest. State of bewilderment. The touching was not provided for in “the contract”. She was looking for appeasement, now she is upset. “The inappropriate gestures” of her mentor upset her to the point of having a collision in the car on leaving Garéoult’s office. She will file a complaint the next day.

“She remains on rapes suffered in adolescence”

So here is Jean-Claude, a big guy of 74 years, summoned to answer for sexual assault on a vulnerable person before the court of Draguignan. His long white hair disciplined in a ponytail, he advances to the bar without a lawyer. Pressed with questions by the president, Jean-Louis Galopin, the defendant shows no empathy. “She is cyclothymic, she is in excess. She got stuck on rapes suffered as a teenager”. It is the turn of the magistrates to be flabbergasted by the arrogance of the defendant. He recognizes the caresses on the feet but speaks of fabrication for the rest. “Anyway, she’s got a lot of tattoos and questionable hygiene so well…”.

The president asks her what interest would she have in inventing such a scenario. “She was angry with me because she kept a notebook where she had to write down her happy and unhappy moments, she expected praise from it, that was not the case”.

Throughout the hearing, the defendant scraps with his judges. When asked about his skills in the matter, he refutes the term magnetizer. He prefers to talk about sessions “of meditation of ideas” on a musical background. He highlights his qualities as an influencer on the lives of his patients. Elodie wanted a child with her husband, he told her “that it was not the moment”.

The defendant’s last patient committed suicide

He even calls into question the report of the psychiatrist who notes his “megalomaniacal” tendencies and a certain appetite for trifles. Today, Jean-Claude sells food supplements. He stopped his “applied psychology” sessions. His last patient committed suicide. It was time for a reassessment.

“When you are a victim of rape sir, you never forget, you live with it. And when you suffer what my client went through, everything goes back ” denounces M^and Eléonore Dartois who carries the voice of Elodie, absent at the trial. In her submissions, the prosecutor, Débora Collombier, does not hesitate to portray a “guru who saw easy prey in the face of this vulnerable victim”. She is asking for a ban on practicing and a 12-month suspended prison sentence.

The court ultimately sentenced Jean-Claude to an 8-month suspended sentence and a 5-year ban on performing any paramedical activity. When the judgment was announced, the prosecutor jumped on the defendant, who was fiddling with his phone. “You don’t record the debates sir, you know it’s forbidden?”. Jean-Claude firmly denies, he always has to have something in his hands.

1: The victim’s first name has been changed.