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Jack Sion was a much loved child. Because an only son, a rarity for children born in 1947, psychologists naturally see in it the origin of his "self-centered position" and his "narcissistic flaws". The main interested party describes above all a “very happy” childhood, without complacency, and access to good studies.

At the National School of Decorative Arts in Nice, he met another student. Renee. "I was very much in love with this woman from Saint-Tropez, pretty, blonde...", recalls Jack Sion. He continues: “Renée's father was the head of a decoration establishment. When he found out his daughter was dating a guy with a fine arts degree, he made sure I married him." In 1968, aged 21, Jack Sion lost his father and married Renée, then pregnant. "Vis-à-vis my family, who were very aristocratic, it was... Finally, like that, she was able to give birth in suitable conditions," he says. His mother, furious, did not go to the wedding. During Jack's military service, Renée gave birth to a little boy, far from what people will say.

“I hardly lived with him. He wasn't at home. He never took care of my son”, reports Renée fifty years later. Jack Sion does not deny: "I found myself at 21 without having lived anything, married and father of a family... It's true, I found myself completely overwhelmed." The infidelities multiplying, Renée took her son under the arm, asked for a bailiff's report for fault, and left the house. “I knew how to defend myself, huh!” she comments. Jack Sion saw his son once again, in the 1980s. Then no one, on either side, followed up. He was paying child support.

In 1975, Jack Sion and Françoise put the ring on their finger “on a whim”. Françoise found him very intelligent, kind and generous. Good talker, too. When she realized that Jack was "fickle" and was writing bad checks in her name, they divorced. Their union lasted two years.

In 1978, Jack Sion made a third and final marriage, to Joëlle. In his early thirties, he longed for a tidy life of cars. After all, maybe there was a certain sweetness in building a stable relationship and a united family, like everyone else. But the hoped-for child did not come and after ten years of living together, the spouses separated, without argument or resentment, simply out of "faded love".

With Anne-Gaëlle, Jack Sion did not wed for the fourth time. They lived four beautiful years together before she returned to settle in Brittany.

The personality survey drawn up as part of the investigation speaks of “turbulent sentimental life”. But for Jack Sion, it was clear: things worked or they didn't.

Jeanne was his last long-term companion. They stayed together from 2009 to 2013. "I remain convinced that his mother is the only woman in his life," she sums up. At the end of their story, Jack and Jeanne's relationship "naturally" became that of a father and a daughter: "We took care of each other," she notes.

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Alternatively decorator and advertiser during his career, Jack Sion was finally hired in a printing company where he took care of the creation of posters. He remained employed there until it closed in 2000, before setting up on his own. Respected in the profession, Jack Sion has developed a portfolio of “very loyal” clients. “He was always courteous to me and my colleagues, assures Joseph, his long-time friend. That, I can confirm to you.”

Of course, Joseph has been “with the same woman” for thirty years, so games of seduction are not part of his grammar, even less so on the internet and on those social networks he does not use, “except to play belote”. But never, he insists, Jack Sion boasted of his conquests to him.

"Anthony Laroche, it was a fantasy, it was obvious"

It was in the 1990s that Jack Sion began. First, thanks to his discovery of the Minitel. This “new relationship system” appealed to him right away: “It was fun to go to sites to chat with women.”

After a breakup, at the dawn of the 2000s, Jack Sion joined online dating sites. Badoo, first. His profile features a photo of him with the handle “JackNice”. He was working in Monaco at the time. One day, a valet recognizes him: “[He] said to me: 'I saw your photo on Badoo. Here, it is a religious principality. If you go to sex sites... They have cyber-police and are very strict on morality,” reports Jack Sion.

On Badoo, some profiles display a photo of Charlize Theron or Monica Bellucci. He chooses a photo of Paul Walker, the actor of Fast and Furious, with a new nickname: “AnthonyCannes”. "I thought it was fun," he says. But "one" tells him not to put a photo of an actor, and even less of a dead actor. He didn't know that Paul Walker had died in a car accident. So he checks “similar images” in the search engine and finds a photo of a model. “Completely implausible, of course, he argues. Anthony Laroche was a fantasy. It showed immediately." This avatar will follow him on all other dating sites.

Alone in the darkness of his bedroom, Jack Sion deceives the coldness of the sheets on his screen. “It was nice, in the evening, everyone at home, in bed, without risk, to send naughty photos to each other,” he says. The messages arrive on his phone and the discussions accumulate, up to “three or four different women every day”.

He who has always had administrative problems – his criminal record shows three convictions, between 2003 and 2014, for concealed work and tax evasion – now finds himself with a real manager's notebook. 352 names of women handwritten in a notebook, with their personal information. “I happened to have a woman say to me, “Hi, how are you? How are your children? Do you still live in Sofia?” That's why I was grading, says Jack Sion. To be precise when the person called me, so as not to mix things up, out of respect for the person.

"I was there for the discussions and the sending of photos of lingerie"

Behind his phone, Jack Sion often lights a cigarette. His pulmonary embolism did not prompt him to quit. A heavy smoker, he goes from one “addictive fragility” – in the words of the expert psychologist – to another. With metronome regularity, Jack Sion navigates from application to application: Badoo, Zoosk, TiilT, Meetic or even Facebook. To the women, Jack Sion talks about his favorite Russian composers, paintings from Spain, and tennis. “He knew how to seduce with words. He was very charming”, remembers his ex-wife Renée, who has not seen him since 1982. “The first sexual organ is the brain”, supports the expert psychologist.

“I was there mostly for the chats and sending lingerie pictures,” he admits. Jack Sion admits having opted for the photo of this "Chevignon model" because he was "exceptional". Moreover, many contacts question him: "Are you the guy in the photo???"; "Wait for such a sublime guy who goes to a site like that, paying... It's not possible!" In the blue light of his phone, Jack Sion smiles and replies: "Well yes, why?" He says, "Many didn't believe it was a real profile at all."

Some interlocutors ask him to take a selfie by making “a little v for victory with his fingers” to provide proof. When he felt, he swears, “a confusion in the head” of the most fragile, when he felt that only the photo of the “super handsome man” attracted them, more than the long conversations and the erotic scenario, he put “ immediately the hola”.

For the rest and others, it was a matter between "consenting adults" turned on by the "submission-domination story". In this regard, the expert psychologist notes that BDSM roleplaying never really involves domination or submission: the one who is dominated and the one who dominates are both in agreement.

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"What is exciting is not knowing the one who touches"

To Jeanne, his companion from 2009 to 2013 with whom he kept good relations, Jack Sion confides his stories virtual. He receives “extremely suggestive” photos and videos; some women are "completely crazy". They sometimes ask to meet him. He refuses. Several times. “Having little erection problems,” he says, Jack Sion prefers to stick to telephone relations.

When they insist, he eventually agrees. Offers them to come to his place, at his address. And sets its conditions: no prior meeting. "If I come to pick you up, we'll go have a coffee, meet like two strangers. It will be as if we were starting our relationship from scratch, ”he says.

In general, women accept. "It went well dozens of times, and two or three times, it went less well," says Jack Sion, acknowledging that some were "disappointed". Virginie, one of the women who wanted to see him again afterwards, warns him: "You know, you're going to have to stop all this, because it's going to get you in trouble." Another, Nadège, texted him after their evening: “What you are doing is not right.” In their office, the investigators also warned him: “Be careful, you are bordering on the limits of the legally reprehensible.” Jeanne also tried to make him listen to reason, but "Jack, he's stubborn," she said. We advise him but he does not listen. It went through his head for two weeks, it went in one ear, came out the other.

Jack retorts that women who accept “want to experience an erotic thing with a stranger”. Everything is a question of state of mind: “It was the least of their concerns to know who they were dealing with” because “what is exciting as much as possible is not knowing who is touching. Besides, married couples do that.” The 68-year-old man finds it very difficult to see anything illegal or devious there: “Someone who is normal, or who is not on this trip, takes off the blindfold for just a moment to see who she's dealing with."

Certainly, the image of Anthony Laroche is part of the business of seduction. But all women talk with the real "him". What he gives them, "[his] spirit and [his] personality", are very much his own. He invites them into his home, into his intimacy. It really exists. As long as Jack Sion speaks to them and they respond to him, he really exists.

“He overestimates his power of seduction, points out the expert psychologist. He has a perception of reality (the photo of a very handsome and muscular man) but he is caught up in his desire. He says to himself: “When they see the reality, it will continue”.

In 2015, everything ended with Marie-Hélène's complaint.

"People don't see things as they happened"

Placed in police custody and brought before the investigating magistrate, Jack Sion is informed that he is likely to be prosecuted for rape. The 68-year-old man is flabbergasted: “What hallucinates me is to find myself here. I do not understand that I am accused of acts of rape. I never forced, threatened or obliged anyone.”

He was then read Article 222-23 of the Penal Code: "Any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature, or any bucco-genital act committed on the person of another or on the person of perpetrator by violence, coercion, threat or surprise is rape. Rape is punishable by fifteen years' imprisonment.

Jack Sion widens his eyes: “Where is the surprise when someone spontaneously comes to experience something they crave?” he asks. He was always "nice". He never hurt anyone. “Going to a stranger's house, wearing a sexy outfit, blindfolding herself, given the risks; I could have been a psychopath or a twisted one who does harm. I had warned them never to reproduce this scenario. You realize if they go to a stranger who may be someone dangerous..."

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During his interview with the expert psychologist, Jack Sion declares: “I am not a predator. I am devastated by what is happening. People don't see things as they happened."

No, really, no matter how much he turned the question around in his head, he couldn't see the illegality of the thing. But justice was going to show it to him.