Australia Australia - Marion Barter, 51, missing after trip to UK, June 1997 #15

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

How sad is it that all these women have been scammed over the years and nothing has been done for them? The few women that report it are placated and made to feel like it was their fault. If they do find the con artist the laws don't really give any sort of penalty. Why hasn't RB been arrested on several of the scams that come out so far? Are they making a case against for that at least? It did not really help the new Belgium woman when she reported it. They didn't take it seriously until the woman in Tornai reported them. There's got to be so many victims out there. The police she make a plea. I imagine there's women out there that have been scammed and are too ashamed and didn't realize they weren't the only ones.

The lawmakers and police need to take these cases seriously. Online scamming is far more popular today and nothing is done to help people get their money back. Again its your fault.

It's heartbreaking but mostly the issue is that scamming / confidence tricksters / financial fraud etc... it mostly doesn't come under criminal law. So, if a man punches you, you can go to the police and make a statement and it will be at least recorded if not taken seriously. If you explain that a man you were in a relationship with asked you to go into a business venture and stole your £50,000, the police are not really interested. They would probably suggest you consult with a lawyer, which once you've had all your money stolen, you probably can't afford to do.

 

[insanity]

Or blackmail….. if you don’t do this you will be exposed for accepting bribe back then?

That was my first thought too.

 

[cortina]

How sad is it that all these women have been scammed over the years and nothing has been done for them? The few women that report it are placated and made to feel like it was their fault. If they do find the con artist the laws don't really give any sort of penalty. Why hasn't RB been arrested on several of the scams that come out so far? Are they making a case against for that at least? It did not really help the new Belgium woman when she reported it. They didn't take it seriously until the woman in Tornai reported them. There's got to be so many victims out there. The police she make a plea. I imagine there's women out there that have been scammed and are too ashamed and didn't realize they weren't the only ones.

The lawmakers and police need to take these cases seriously. Online scamming is far more popular today and nothing is done to help people get their money back. Again its your fault.

nowhere nearly as serious, but I recently had my smart phone stolen when I was trying to help someone at a railway station...of course, the whole thing was a scam, but you do feel stupid and as though its your fault...it was a city I go to once in a blue moon and. the police know what is happening and they assumed I should have known...I do have sympathy as they're dreadfully understaffed, but it is humiliating.

so. can you imagine what its like. to have been conned out of your life savings but, even worse, to. have your emotional vulnerability revealed on top of the brutal end of a relationship that you initially believed in..I know they'd be looked on by some people as sad and needy women

 

[cortina]

When did Marion win her Queensland teaching award?

Is a question we’ve often asked but couldn’t find an answer. We often wondered if RB could have seen newspaper articles about her and targeted her that way.

Answer: it was 1996!

According to MPMB fb, she then went on to be a finalist for the national teaching award and received that nomination in November 1996. The articles said she loved teaching!

Yet by Christmas 1996 she informed her family she was going overseas.

So what changed between November and December???

This is what she looked like in November 1996.

I think what changed was that she thought she had met a partner she. could make a real relationship with and that she could always take another teaching job once they'd got over the. giddy phase

 

[BabeBlues]

The police must already know this woman as they approached Ghislaine off the back of her report to them. So, lets hope they have compiled a lot of information we don't yet know about!?

Yes, the Tournai police would know who she is, I hope Sally and the team can find out. It seems police from other countries don't share information unless it is formally requested by the Australian police. I am sure there is a lot of information to come

 

[Maddieb]

Huh?

As in to avoid customs…. Hence no record of MB’s FNMR passport leaving AUS

 

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Has it been ruled out that Marion did not post a personal ad to which RB responded? I know he said that's how he met her, but do we have any reason to doubt that-- given that is how he found other victims. (It's a good way to find vulnerable women.)

 

[mishy66]

Has it been ruled out that Marion did not post a personal ad to which RB responded? I know he said that's how he met her, but do we have any reason to doubt that-- given that is how he found other victims. (It's a good way to find vulnerable women.)

Sally has mentioned her mother would not do that.

 

[Eyespywithmylittleeye]

he also said ‘she’rang me at one stage during his testimony so I think we can safely say it’s his ad that Marion responded to

 

[Eyespywithmylittleeye]

As in to avoid customs…. Hence no record of MB’s FNMR passport leaving AUS

He’s a master of fake ID’s so I think there would be easier ways of leaving Australia without having to sail a boat himself to Bali with Marion.

 

[gymtonic]

Sally has mentioned her mother would not do that.

No criticism of SL here but there are a few things that MB's friends and family say she would not do, but she did...the main one being change her name? Maybe she did place an ad and maybe she didn't, nothing has been found though.
Maybe he posted another ad and maybe he didn't, and so maybe they met coincidentally by other means (art centre etc all mooted at different times). The point being that no evidence has been presented as to how the connection was made, so any conclusions are speculation at this point surely?
MOO

 

[mishy66]

No criticism of SL here but there are a few things that MB's friends and family say she would not do, but she did...the main one being change her name? Maybe she did place an ad and maybe she didn't, nothing has been found though.
Maybe he posted another ad and maybe he didn't, and so maybe they met coincidentally by other means (art centre etc all mooted at different times). The point being that no evidence has been presented as to how the connection was made, so any conclusions are speculation at this point surely?
MOO

Yep.
Just posting what Sally said.
Not my viewpoint.

Her comment was her mother would not do that and the ad in 1994 was placed when she was in a relationship with GE

 

[centred]

Curious

 

[Getro callum]

54 year old Ellen Wilson is still missing from the ballina area. I hope the police have checked every possible connection to RB.

It’s scary to think MB’s link to RB was only discovered by such a slim chance (Remakel advertisement).
If it was not for the name change MB would have no connection to a RB.

 

[MrsWattle]

Run his DNA through the system incase RB is a sex offender or serial murderer.

There are so many unsolved crimes,
Missing persons from Northern NSW.

 

[Deleted member 249471]

54 year old Ellen Wilson is still missing from the ballina area. I hope the police have checked every possible connection to RB.

It’s scary to think MB’s link to RB was only discovered by such a slim chance (Remakel advertisement).
If it was not for the name change MB would have no connection to a RB.

Ellen was a disability support worker from Lismore who was last seen in 2015 withdrawing cash at a Ballina venue with an ATM. Her car disappeared and she never accessed her bank again.

Given her bank wasn’t drained, I doubt it had anything to do with RB. His aim is to steal large amounts of money and expensive things.

I wondered if maybe she’d seen something regarding Marion and RB needed to fix it. But that’s also unlikely given she disappeared in 2015.

Ellen’s situation sounds like something totally different, and the only connection is that she went missing in Ballina. I don’t think RB did a lot of scamming where he lived. He seemed to go to great lengths to do it everywhere else!

I do hope Ellen’s family get some answers soon. Not knowing is just awful.

 

[MrsEmmaPeel]

54 year old Ellen Wilson is still missing from the ballina area. I hope the police have checked every possible connection to RB.

It’s scary to think MB’s link to RB was only discovered by such a slim chance (Remakel advertisement).
If it was not for the name change MB would have no connection to a RB.

Which is why I love thinking the name change was Mr Smarty Pants’s idea!

 

[Lord Peter Flimsy]

Has it been ruled out that Marion did not post a personal ad to which RB responded? I know he said that's how he met her, but do we have any reason to doubt that-- given that is how he found other victims. (It's a good way to find vulnerable women.)

I still believe what Marion told her daughter that they first met at the Arts Centre and his ad from a few years earlier played no part in it.

His ads were like a net thrown out hoping to drag in some unsuspecting victims. He was also trawling lonely hearts ads in Australia and on his visits to Europe.

But as with JO it wasn’t his only way. He was an opportunist that would seek out single middle aged women. No doubt if he found they were married he quickly cut short any conversation.

 

[MrsWattle]

I'd love to hear a criminal psychologist analysis of RB.

I know grandiose narcissistic personality disorder can quickly turn to dangerous rage.

 

[BabeBlues]

I still believe what Marion told her daughter that they first met at the Arts Centre and his ad from a few years earlier played no part in it.

His ads were like a net thrown out hoping to drag in some unsuspecting victims. He was also trawling lonely hearts ads in Australia and on his visits to Europe.

But as with JO it wasn’t his only way. He was an opportunist that would seek out single middle aged women. No doubt if he found they were married he quickly cut short any conversation.

I am thinking the same, I don't think the ad in 1994(?) was answered by Marion but an amazing coincidence that it was uncovered by one of the Supersleuths (sorry I forget who it was, Joni perhaps?) and that one advertisement in Le Courrier has led to all of these shocking findings about RB and hopefully his unravelling which will see him imprisoned or stripped of his Aus citizenship and deported back to Belgium, lock him up and throw away the key.

Although I do wonder why RB spun the story about meeting Marion in Switzerland so many years earlier. Perhaps they had met prior to 1996? Seriously who would know with all the lies he spins......he probably can't remember the truth himself most of the time.