He knew a success of esteem as a painter, his abstract landscapes, made with a knife, being regularly exhibited here and there.
However, these are very concrete elements that the Poitiers Criminal Court (Vienne) will look into this Thursday: movements of money, disturbing writings and nearly 8,000 video tapes of sexual intercourse made for the benefit of Christian Ruhaut , who justice accuses of having been at the head of a mini-sect for more than ten years.
Prosecuted for money laundering and abuse of weakness by psychological subjection, the 73-year-old man appears alongside his companion Catherine Brocq, 67, tried for complicity.
Yoga teacher established near Amiens (Somme), it is the spiritual aura of Ruhaut that had seduced a group of ten people among his most diligent students.
Which followed him, at the turn of the 2000s, in his "South Project": the purchase, via an SCI (real estate company) of one, then two houses of character on the borders of Vienne and Charente -Maritime, in order to offer it an exceptional setting to provide its courses.
They all agree "to submit to him, the Master"
No yoga at the finish, however: the followers, sometimes combining two jobs, invest body and goods to restore the manor in which Ruhaut and Brocq settle.
All emptied their accounts for the benefit of the SCI and signed a "commitment" in which they ensure their "will to follow him (...) towards freedom, by agreeing to submit to him, the Master".
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In the second house, the group lives in isolation, in a climate of espionage and unhealthy emulation to obtain the approval of Ruhaut, especially the women, with whom they take turns sleeping.
The two complainants at the origin of the investigation, in 2013, describe a system of bullying and sanctions: spitting in the face, cold showers or sleeping in a barn, on the rubble ...
An assumed debauchery
Under "surpassing oneself", the group would have been put to the test during "sex workshops", leading them to multiple relationships with strangers in libertine clubs, sex shops or on motorway areas. .
The members would also have been pushed into homosexual, incestuous, scatological relations and even zoophilic practices with foals or eels… All filmed, then duly annotated by Christian Ruhaut who valued the “originality” of the performances.
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Practices yet claimed by most of the members, who assume their debauchery, and will come to the bar to support Ruhaut.
Actor, teacher, graphic designer, doctor, speech therapist… For the most part - the experts remain divided on certain cases - these people, however “superior intelligent” would not in reality be aware of having lost their free will.
Adepts "ready for anything"
“A classic in terms of sectarian influence, estimate Mes Maleine Picotin-Gueye and Ophélie Rodrigues, lawyers for the two plaintiffs, one of whom has lost more than 600,000 euros.
Followers are ready to do anything, including endangering their health, their honor, their heritage, to protect their guru.
"
"What hold are we talking about?
For his part, Me Lee Takhedmit protested, who along with Me Edouard Martial, defended the painter.
Without this sexual aspect, we wouldn't even speak of a sect!
It is actually a financial dispute brought by a woman who, when she realized that she would not be the favorite, left with loss and noise.
"
"We have here a somewhat utopian community of life project that has collapsed", pleads Me Lynda Sabilellah, lawyer of Catherine Brocq, who rejects the qualifier of "right arm" for her client.
"The telephone tapping gave nothing: no proof that she could have given instructions or relayed those of Ruhaut", insists the lawyer.
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"Who was paid a salary without real consideration?"
Who took control of the SCI?
Who watched the videos and wrote the reports?
», Asks Me Picotin-Gueye in return.
As part of the answer, the lawyer recalls that the camera was nicknamed by the group "the eye of Christian" ...
