France's 'swinger' capital rocked by fortune teller scandal

The French town of Agde is known for its beautiful Mediterranean beaches, year-round sun – and its reputation for "wild sex parties".

Home to Europe's "biggest swinger community", the prosperous town near Montpellier welcomes "tens of thousands of couples" every year who are seeking to swap partners, said the BBC. But Agde is "reeling from an entirely new scandal", which has France "shaking its head in collective bemusement and amusement".

Town mayor and former secret service officer Gilles d'Ettore has been jailed after allegedly "lavishing gifts on a local clairvoyant at the taxpayer's expense", said the Daily Mail. The 55-year-old, who has been mayor since 2001, has been accused of corruption after "squandering" money on the self-described medium Sophia Martinez, who purported to channel his father's voice from beyond the grave. He denies the charges. 

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What's the case?

Martinez, a mother of six, describes herself as a "medium, hypnotherapist and healer" on her Facebook page. "I am a specialist in the cleansing of energy for people and places."

In 2020, she put the mayor and former conservative MP "in contact" with his deceased father, according to d'Ettore's lawyer. 

Martinez, 44, was allegedly able to mimic d'Ettore's father's voice "with her extraordinary ventriloquist skills in order to further the con", said the Daily Mail, "regularly impersonating" the father, who died in 1996, both in person and over the phone.

Prosecutors allege that Martinez used the voice to convince the mayor to "hire her family members for government jobs, pay for holidays to exotic locations such as Polynesia and Thailand, pay for her wedding and to renovate her home".

"Protect Sophia, protect Sophia, take care of her and her people," the voice "implored in regular telephone calls to the mayor in his office", said The Times. Martinez even modified her voice with members of her family and close friends, said prosecutor Raphaël Balland. 

"By using this male-sounding, hoarse voice, she succeeded in making them think they were talking with a supernatural being from the beyond."

The mayor was "so infatuated" with Martinez that he "considered her to be his daughter", said The Telegraph. He even walked her down the aisle last year at her lavish third wedding. "Nothing was too good for Ms Martinez."

D'Ettore's estranged wife, Geraldine, blew the whistle last October. She told police that d'Ettore had been "bewitched" by the medium into embezzling council funds. Police set up wiretaps and were "amazed" by Martinez's ventriloquist skills. She agreed to demonstrate these during her interrogation, which was filmed.

The mayor was arrested in March for alleged "illegal interest-taking and corruption", the Béziers prosecutor said in a statement. He is also being investigated for "misappropriation of funds by a person in a position of public authority", said Connexion France.

He denies the charges. The mayor fell under the influence of a "perfectly malevolent character", said his lawyer Jean Marc Darrigade. He claims he was the "victim of a swindle". 

"We had to show him this video [of Martinez's interrogation] for him to realise that he had been duped," he told Le Parisien. 

Martinez is facing charges of embezzlement and tax fraud, after police reportedly found large sums of cash at her home. Both are in custody awaiting trial to prevent potential witness tampering. Martinez's husband is also under investigation.

What's the reaction?

Martinez has admitted to "bewitching" the mayor of Agde, said The Times, and using her influence to get council jobs for her husband and five family members. She told police she had been "caught up in a negative spiral".

But Martinez's lawyer, Luc Abratkiewicz, said that "it's not a case of manipulation" because Martinez "owned up to what she did". Her other clients, including doctors and architects, claim she had "mystical powers", he told the BBC. 

Meanwhile, the mayor's lawyer has "turned into a minor celebrity overnight", said the broadcaster. "It's a crazy story," said Darrigade. "It's incredible because you have a man in politics, mayor and former MP who is very intelligent. And you discover that a man like that can be manipulated by a woman."

The whole town is "stunned", said Thierry Nadal, leader of the Agde council opposition. "It's a really sad affair" and this "bizarre stuff with the clairvoyant" is "damaging our town".

The lawyers may deny it, said the BBC, but locals believe "it all comes down to sex in a town with a lot of it already".