“I saw this man like the sun”says this 44-year-old woman, in her little sequined shirt. At the helm, the guide-lecturer speaks loudly, she cries a little, and loses herself in fiery explanations. She is “passionate”said his lawyer. Passionate about History and Prehistory, that’s why Jean-Max Touron had her work for him in his tourist sites. This Tuesday, October 15, the tourist guide was judged by the Bergerac criminal court, for having sprayed with red paint the family vault of his ex-boss in Buguebut also for having usurped his identity, for theft, insults and defamation.
“I lost my mind”
Jean-Max Touron had entrusted her with the Fort du roc de Tayac, which she helped to open to the public. But the guide quickly becomes too cumbersome, she wants to manage everything as if she were the owner. Above all, she has feelings for Jean-Max Touron, this 80-year-old man, with his gaze “sparkling” and who “fascinates”. “It was he who approached me romantically”she asserts, while Jean-Max Touron’s lawyer asserts that their relationship was only professional. When he pushes her away, she says she tried to kill herselfthen she takes revenge. “I lost my mind”she told the court.
During the year 2023, she will first steal a cardiotaph kept at the de la Salle manor in Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère. It is a sort of lead tomb which was used to contain a heart. She told the police that the gesture was symbolic of her broken heart. She also writes letters pretending to be Jean-Max Touronin which she presents it as a “sex patient”and which are sent to its employees, to the press, or even to the priest of Sarlat. In August, she poured a bottle of red paint mixed with water on the family vault of the Touron family in Bugue.
Six months suspended
“We would have liked at least words of apology”deplores Jean-Max Touron’s lawyer: “Instead, she explains to you that she is the victim, the easy prey.” The lawyer insists on saying to what extent her client’s honor was “scorned” et its reputation damaged among its staffhe who is, she says, a “iconic character known and recognized as the guardian” number of historic sites in Périgord.
La justice n’a no psychiatric expertise required in this matter. But the president is concerned about whether the guide is being followed by a psychologist, and whether she has undertaken treatment. The forty-year-old was sentenced to six months in prison. She will also have to pay several thousand euros in damages to her victim.
