Trial of the alleged guru of Parc de la Villette: Élysée Ade still has his fans

The contrast is striking. On the bench of civil parties of the Paris Criminal Court, a handful of plaintiffs. Some, as their lawyer Me Rodolphe Bosselut explains in the preamble, are indeed still “too afraid” to face the one they denounced as their former guru: Élysée Ade. At 53, the man has been on trial since Monday for having placed twenty people under the influence between 2009 and 2015 and sexually assaulted a follower. But as is often the case in sectarian matters, most of the victims do not recognize themselves as such. And if they are present in the room – mostly women dressed in black, with long jet-colored hair or dyed platinum blonde – it is to support their mentor.