Marion Barter inquest: Conman convinced elderly widow to marry and move to Australia
Ghislaine Dubois-Danlois tells a coronial inquest Ric Blum swindled $115,000 from her as she hopes to help find Marion Barter who has been missing since 1997.
Serial conman Ric Blum – who denies involvement in the perplexing disappearance of Marion Bart-er – tempted an elderly widow living in Belgium with marriage, a new life in Australia and financial benefits for her four children.
Ghislaine Dubois-Danlois told a coronial inquest on Wednesday of her 2006 relationship with Mr Blum and claimed he took €70,000 and two trunks of valuable belongings from her.
The NSW coroners court was told the pair met after Mr Blum, known to her then as Frederick De Hedervary, penned a letter in response to an ad Ms Dubois-Danlois, now in her 80s, had put in a newspaper seeking companionship. The relationship soon developed when Ms Dubois-Danlois invited Mr Blum to stay at her place, where the two shared a bed and eventually made plans to marry and move to Australia together.
“Yes, (we shared a bed) but he had said to me beforehand that he was abnormally frigid,” Ms Dubois-Danlois said.
The French resident gave evidence through audiovisual link with an interpreter after being interviewed by the Belgian media and identified Blum in court from a picture and headline from a story in The Australian. The fraud eventually proposed to get married in Bali and move without telling the woman’s family because it would be “more fun and practical”. But Ms Dubois-Danlois refused to leave her children without telling them of her plans.
“So that’s when we arranged a meal with my children in Brussels,” she said. “That’s when he met my children, only then.
“They were, of course, very surprised and astonished.”
She claimed Mr Blum convinced her to sell her house, withdraw money from her bank accounts and cash in her shares to put funds into four separate bank accounts in Australia for her children to access when they would visit.
She said he would always accompany her to the bank and ask to receive money under the table.
“Eventually I understood that he never loved me and all he wanted was my money,” she said.
“I want to add that he took advantage of the love I had for my children to steal my money.”
Ms Dubois-Danlois said before the planned move to Australia, the Belgian national instructed her to get an international driver’s licence and undergo a medical exam that included a sleep test and ultrasound of her kidney.
Mr Blum also asked for the letter he wrote to her back to frame above their bed in Australia and for permission to pack some of her valuable belongings into two trunks that he would ship that she has not seen since. The conman left Ms Dubois-Danlois after she considered buying a house for her son in France and he understood he would not get money.
The elderly woman gave police a statement in 2013 after a woman reported being stranded in Bali.
“They told me just a little, they gave me no name but they said this poor lady had been abandoned without any money in Bali and she was completely left without anything and very sad,” she said.
She said poison seemed “very important” to Mr Blum, a detail his estranged daughter also echoed. Day 14 of the inquest raised similarities in Ms Dubois-Danlois and Blum’s previous victims, with “Charlotte” also handing cash to Blum under the table after withdrawal and Ms Barter told to get an international driver’s licence.
The inquest first began in June 2021 and was triggered after years of calls from Ms Barter’s daughter, Sally Leydon, to look into her mother’s disappearance.
The teacher and former wife of football legend Johnny Warren went missing in June 1997 aged 51 and was last seen at a bus depot in Southport, Queensland. She quit her job and sold her house abruptly to travel overseas and has not been seen for almost 26 years, missing her daughter’s wedding, son’s funeral and birth of her grandchildren.
“I really want to help the daughter of the lady who disappeared,” Ms Dubois-Danlois said.
Belgian grandmother Andree Flamme, 92, who said her late husband’s coin collection was stolen by Mr Blum, also appeared via videolink to give evidence. She was called to the court only after she and her daughter Agnes Plume were contacted and interviewed by The Australian this year. The widow said she had been feeling alone when she came to know and housed Blum in May-June 2010 following the death of her husband Jacques Plume in October 2009. Blum is due to appear before the inquest at Lismore Local Court on Thursday morning.
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