Accused Casanova conman Ric Blum denies dabbling in poisons

A man who has become the focus of inquiries into a schoolteacher’s mystery disappearance has denied having an interest in poisons.

Ric Blum at Byron Bay Local Court for the Marion Barter inquest. Picture: Tessa Flemming

An accused romance scammer at the centre of inquiries into the disappearance of a Queensland teacher has denied having a ­special interest in poisons.

Ric Blum also declared he “didn’t take a razoo” from the missing woman, Marion Barter, a mother of two and former wife of Australian football legend Johnny Warren.

Mr Blum was previously jailed in France for fraud, is known by at least 50 aliases and has admitted to an affair with Barter shortly ­before she vanished in 1997.

In recent months, allegations have emerged that he scammed two Belgian widows out of their money and belongings, with one stating: “I think he wanted to ­poison me.”

Now 83 and living in northern NSW, the Belgium-born Mr Blum strenuously denied having any plan or desire to poison the widow, Ghislaine Danlois. “It’s completely untrue,” he told The Weekend Australian.

Mr Blum has been accused of stealing about €70,000 from Ms Danlois in 2006 after meeting her via a personal ad. He is also said to have pressured her, for an unknown reason, to undergo unnecessary liver tests – something Barter also underwent before going missing.

A NSW inquest into Barter’s disappearance and suspected death remains ongoing, and Ms Danlois’s daughter-in-law, Alexandra Peereboom, confirmed this week that she was in regular contact with Australian police.

Ms Peereboom has told authorities that Mr Blum showed an interest in poisons, but he insists that’s not the case.

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“I don’t know more about ­poison than the usual, what do you call that, things that you use at home,” he said. “You know, like bleach and all that.”

He also said it was an “invention” that he once claimed to Ms Danlois’s family that he had been captured in the Vietnam War.

Missing schooolteacher Marion Barter.

“That’s a pack of lies. If that’s the case, I didn’t know anything about it,” he said. “Whatever they say, there’s always two sides to every story. And whatever they say, it’s got to be proved.”

Referring to Barter’s large cash withdrawals shortly before her disappearance, Mr Blum said a bank manager had confirmed “Marion was the one taking the money out herself, sometimes two or three times a day”.

Asked if Barter, then aged 51, was withdrawing the cash to give to him, Mr Blum said: “No. No. I never got a razoo from Marion.”

Mr Blum said he had “no idea” why women were coming forward with allegations against him. Nor did he know when NSW State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan would announce her findings.

“Everything has been suspended because apparently new material came out,” he said. “My counsel said not to say anything.”

He previously told the inquest he changed his name “as a fantasy”. But Adam Casselden SC, counsel assisting the coroner, said in his closing submissions that Mr Blum had a pattern of exploiting vulnerable women. “He has led an extraordinary life of deceit and duplicity,” Mr Casselden said.