Trial of a woman guru: "I was no longer her daughter"

Eloïse Bertil 7:32 a.m., November 24, 2021, modified at 7:34 a.m., November 24, 2021

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One year in prison.

This is the sentence required against Eliane Deschamps, tried for abuse of weakness of a sectarian nature by the Criminal Court of Dijon.

Since 1996, Éliane Deschamps claims to see the Virgin Mary every month.

Around her, a group of prayers baptized "Love and Mercy" was formed.

A community of which some followers denounce the hold of a woman who has become a "guru", ten of them have become civil parties.

Eliane Deschamps' own daughter, Magali Breux, herself recounted these abuses in a testimony given to Olivier Delacroix a few years ago, to be found in the podcast "Dans les Yeux d'Olivier".

"I was part of the group, I was no longer his daughter"

In this long interview, Magali Breux recounts that it all started in the Daix forest, near Dijon, in 1996, when her mother said she saw an apparition of the Virgin.

From this first vision, Éliane Deschamps organizes pilgrimages every month with prayer groups from all over France.

Little by little, she formed around her a community of believers who lived under her orders, whom she claimed to receive directly from the Virgin.

Fascinated, all obey his commands without questioning the established hierarchy, according to Magali Breux.

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"Anyone who loves their father, mother, brother or sister better than me is not worthy of me," Éliane Deschamps repeated to members of her community.

In her long testimony given to Olivier Delacroix, Magali Breux specifies that followers have no personal life: everything revolves around Éliane Deschamps, to the point of repeating the same tasks for her every day.

According to her, Éliane Deschamps forbids them in passing any contact with the outside world, forcing the members of her group to break with their families by a simple mail.

Charges of influence

If Magali Breux has succeeded in freeing herself from the hold exerted by her father, she says that it is thanks to her husband. According to her, it took the gaze of an atheist, outside the group, to realize that she herself had been psychologically abused by her own mother. "I prefer to tell myself that she is deceased rather than to tell me that she is alive somewhere, that she continues to do harm", confided Magali Breux at the microphone of Olivier Delacroix.

A first investigation into the “Love and Mercy” prayer group was launched in 2003 following the alert from Miviludes, the interministerial mission for vigilance and the fight against sectarian aberrations.

But the one who is described as a "guru" by many followers has always disputed the accusations of sway.

It was not until 2019 that justice required the sending of Eliane Deschamps to court, her trial having then been postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Éliane Deschamps, 67 years old today, faces five years in prison and a 750,000 euros fine.

The judgment will be rendered on January 31, 2022.