Agde, a coastal town of 30,000 residents in southern France, has been engulfed by a major scandal involving local psychic Sophia Martinez and mayor Gilles d’Ettore
A French town that is home to Europe’s biggest swinger community is reeling from a scandal involving its mayor and a local fortune teller.
Agde, a coastal commune in the Hérault department in southern France, is known for its beautiful sandy beaches and is a popular destination for tens of thousands of couples who want to swap partners. But the latest scandal, which saw psychic Sophia Martinez and Agde’s mayor Gilles d’Ettore being jailed under judicial investigation, left everyone shocked.
The 44-year-old medium has been imprisoned on fraud charges, while the 55-year-old mayor, a former secret service officer and police officer, is accused of corruption for spending taxpayers’ money on the woman. The pair met in 2020 and prosecutors said Martinez admitted she fooled d’Ettore by pretending she was talking to his deceased father during seances, when she was actually using her projected voice.
At the voice’s insistence, the mayor is alleged to have given Martinez lavish gifts paid with taxpayers’ money – including the cost of her second wedding at a château and a council car and driver for her family. He is also alleged to have given council jobs to the psychic’s husband and five other family members.
The mayor is also alleged to have paid for lavish holidays for Martinez and her family, including to Polynesia and Thailand, all using public funds from the town, which is home to 30,000 people. It is alleged that the “voices” persuaded the mayor to help the fortune teller during regular phone calls to his office.
Police said the voice would urge d’Ettore to “Protect Sophia, protect Sophia, take care of her and her people” as prosecutor Raphaël Balland said the psychic would use a “male-sounding, hoarse voice” to convince the mayor he was talking to a spirit beyond the grave. After being arrested, Martinez admitted she had faked the voice and even showed investigators her voice-throwing talent.
The mayor’s lawyer, Jean-Marc Darrigade, described his client’s situation as “a crazy story” as he described d’Ettore as a “very intelligent” man who was “manipulated” by the psychic despite his position of power. The lawyer told the BBC: “This is a woman who came into his life and said I can speak to your deceased father. She found a mental weakness in him and exploited it for personal gain. It took a long time before he accepted he had been conned.”
However, Martinez’s lawyer, Luc Abratkiewicz, denied she manipulated the lawyer and insisted the woman really has psychic powers. He said: “She has admitted betraying the mayor’s confidence but it’s not a case of manipulation because she has owned up to what she did and other clients including doctors and architects said she had mystical powers. She revealed details about their lives that no one else knew about.”
Martinez, a mother of six, built a reputation in the town as a “medium, hypnotherapist and healer” who is a “specialist in the cleansing of energy for people and places”, according to her Facebook page. Both people are in police custody as the investigation continues as a judge wants to avoid tempering. It is understood Martinez was moved to solitary confinement after being assaulted at her women-only prison wing with other inmates accusing her of witchcraft.
