SERIES [2/6] For ten years, Château de Martel, in Monflanquin (47), was the scene of a real legal saga against the backdrop of mental influence. Wringed, the owners were subjected to the law of a formidable scoundrel.
Behind the thick vegetation, he is there. Barely visible, at the edge of this country road far from the village of Monflanquin, in Lot-et-Garonne, sleeps the Château de Martel.
After years of tumult and the theater of a dark and incredible adventure of mind controlthis historic building with an area of 800 m², dating from the year 16e century, flanked by its towers and bordered by a huge park of 1.6 hectares, it regains its peace and tries to be forgotten. The large entrance gate blocked by a heavy rusted chain does not invite you to go any further.
This is where the “monflanquin recluse” business started in 2001, where 11 people from the same family, the Vedrini spousesdescended from a long line of Protestant aristocrats, they lived enslaved under the thumb of a fearsome swindler, who extorted their property and wealth, wreaking havoc for nearly 10 years, dispossessing them of this family heritage.
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“They still own property in the area and sometimes come back here”
More than twenty years after the beginning of this extraordinary adventure and at the end of long legal episodes, Monflanquin has turned the page. “It's not uncommon to come across one or more members of this family in the village during the summer,” comments this historic downtown merchant “They still have property in the area, but we're far from the frenzy that all this history brought at the time.” .
Gone are the days when tourists flocked to Monflanquin just to go to the house, as one might do to visit a tourist hotspot. “The new owners were so exasperated by this behavior that they put stone blocks all along the path bordering the property to prevent curious people from stopping and taking photos,” reports this Monflanquin resident, aged around 60 years.
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How could an entire family, from the grandmother, Guillemette, born in 1912, to her three children, Philippe, Ghislaine and Charles-Henri, their husbands, to the grandchildren, fall under the mental influence of one man? Thierry Tilly, described as a good manipulator and seducerto the point of leaving him alone master of all their decisions and reducing them to slavery?
If Monflanquin today wants to forget the episodes of this dramatic saga, the questions still torment the minds of the “historians” of this bastide of more than 2,000 inhabitants, labeled among the most beautiful villages in France.
“Vulnerability of defrauded persons”
It all started in the late 1990s. Ghislaine de Védrines, who runs a secretarial school in Paris, is looking for a cleaning company for her premises. Thierry Tilly, 33 years old at the time, runs maintenance companies and introduces himself. The current passes very quickly. Ghislaine falls under the spell of this affable and cultured man. Endowed with a remarkable sense of obedience, Thierry Tilly became, over the months, the trusted man of the chatelaine who introduced him into the family circle at Monflanquin.
He gets to know the whole family, including Ghislaine's siblings as well as the in-laws. Trust is established and Tilly collects confidences from different members. Using a terrible power of persuasion, he goes so far as to meddle in everyone's personal affairs, encouraging them to make decisions by highlighting, in turn, his high-ranking relationships, his qualities as an asset manager, and “inventing secret agent activities. ..
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An extraordinary chatter that weighs heavily in the choices of this family faced with internal quarrels, against a background of inheritance and rivalries related to the succession of assets. With the help of a financial agent, Thierry Tilly organizes, over the years, the bankruptcy of this family, convincing them that they are the victims of a plot set up by external forces (freemasonry, pedophile networks) who want the money. The Védrins then live cut off from the world, no longer daring to go out.
Sentenced to 10 years in prison on appeal
Tilly makes people believe that one of her members, Ghislaine's sister-in-law, is the heir to the treasure of the kings of France that she is secretly hiding away from the rest of the family. In order to keep the properties and the inheritance, he manages to convince them to place their money in a bank account while giving orders from a distance.
In 2008, Château de Martel was sold for nearly €500,000. In total, the sum of the sums extorted by Tilly is estimated at 5 million euros. Christine de Védrines, Ghislaine's sister-in-lawmanages to escape from his grasp before denouncing the facts.
In 2009, Tilly that is eventually arrested in Switzerland. He is sentenced in 2012 to eight years in prison for “fraud”, “extortion” and “abuse of weakness against persons in a state of psychological submission”. The sentence increased to 10 years, on appeal, in 2013. Experts highlighted the “vulnerability of people, even educated and socially integrated people, when faced with charismatic and persuasive manipulators”.
Thierry Tilly spent time at the Cadillac psychiatric hospital in Gironde. Despite their struggle to regain possession of the castle, the Védrins were unable to recover it. The building was sold to individuals.