Marion Barter inquest hears from Ric Blum in Byron Local Court
A secret lover has shockingly revealed he stole the identity of an international soccer player for a companionship ad as a part of evidence at an inquest into missing mum Marion Barter.
Police & Courts
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A secret lover of missing Gold Coast mum Marion Barter has told an inquest into her disappearance he stole the identity of an international soccer player for a companionship ad.
Ms Barter, a Southport schoolteacher, was last seen by her family in June 1997, days before she flew overseas for what was meant to be a year-long holiday in the UK and Europe.
She flew back into Australia in August 1997 with her name changed to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel, but her family never heard from her again.
Ballina and Byron Bay hearings of an inquest into her disappearance have largely focused on her purported secret lover Ric Blum, who the inquest heard allegedly scammed several women across Sydney and the North Coast.
Mr Blum gave evidence on Thursday as to why he chose to adopt the name Fernand Remakel.
It was one of 13 names to which Mr Blum has confessed using.
The inquest had heard on Wednesday Mr Blum, a man with international fraud convictions, had “used cheques without cover”.
Mr Blum told the inquest he put a companionship ad in Le Courrier Australien under the name Fernand Remakel despite being known as Richard Westbury at the time.
The ad, heard in the inquest, described Mr Blum as a 47-year-old multiple homeowner who was “single, genuine, and morally aligned”.
Counsel Assisting Adam Casselden SC suggested none of this was true.
“In 1994 you were not genuine were you?” Mr Casselden asked.
“In 1994 you were not very morally aligned were you?”
He asked why Mr Blum was “hell bent” on publicly lying and assuming the age of the real Fernand Remakel.
“Why? Because it was part of the whole thing and the whole thing was a lie,” Mr Blum said.
He said it was a “deliberate” decision to take on the man’s identity but not calculating.
Mr Blum said no one ever contacted him regarding the ad.
Mr Blum also told the inquest the Queensland licence under that name was mysteriously lost in mid 1997 – around the same time Ms Barter is believed to have returned to Australia under a new name.
“I thought I lost the licence at one stage because I didn’t have it anymore but that’s all I can say,” he said.
“I can’t exactly remember.”
Mr Casselden described the statement as “rather convenient”.
“Are you making this evidence up Mr Blum?” he said.
“Look I’m prepared to take the polygraph if you want to,” Mr Blum replied.
The inquest heard the secret lover held Ballina and Lennox Head post office boxes without telling his wife Diane De Hedervary.
The latter was linked to the Le Courrier Australien ad.
“(It was) just to service the ad that’s all I can say,” he said.
Mr Blum denied blackmailing his mistress Ginette Gaffney Bowan with nude photos.
Ms Gaffney-Bowan has previously given evidence before the inquest, saying Mr Blum used to stay at her Greenwich house and stole a total of $30,000 from her using her keycard she lent him.
Mr Blum on Thursday said it was only a two-day affair, an affair which he originally denied to police in September last year.
He vehemently denied allegations of staying at her Sydney property and stealing.
Mr Blum said he opposed an apprehended violence order Ms Gaffney-Bowan later placed upon him – an order he also couldn’t remember in the September police interview.
Mr Casselden then provided a signed document containing Mr Blum’s position to the apprehended violence order faxed to North Sydney Local Court in 1999.
Mr Blum told the inquest he couldn't remember drafting it and believed his signature may have been copied.
Ms Gaffney-Bowan and another mistress, Janet Oldenburg, had previously told the inquest Mr Blum had proposed to each of them separately that he start a coin business with them.
Mr Blum refuted those statements on Thursday.
He said he visited Ms Oldenburg’s house three times - something which Mr Casselden said the witness had said about Marion Barter.
“Do you not say you only visited Marion Barter on three occasions…coincidental is it not?” he asked.
“Coincidental yes,” Mr Blum replied.
The inquest will continue on Friday at Byron Bay Local Court.
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