VALENCIA / COSTA AZAHAR FREE Vol. 1 Issue 35 www.theolivepress.es
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The
OLIVE PRESS
Your expat
voice in Spain April 7th - April 20th 2022
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HYPNOTISED BY JESUS!
HE grew his hair long like Jesus and was looked up to ‘like a god’. A so-called ‘healer’ (or curandero) he had a herbal medicine practice on the costas and a series of intelligent graduate friends. But sex cult leader Tio Toni, 64, was allegedly an evil child abuser, who brainwashed dozens of people into effectively living in slavery. Now, after police arrested Tio Toni - real name Antonio GL along with eight other followers, five of them female, he is set to face 80 years in prison. In a shocking investigation, the Olive Press can reveal how Antonio allegedly hypnotised his followers to believe he was a spiritual healer over a staggering 30year period. Victims and psychologists told us how the alternative medicine practitioner conned his respect-
Victims and therapists tell Olive Press of ordeal at the hands of sex abuse cult leader Tio Toni By Jorge Hinojosa
least initially, that behind the scenes he was allegedly abusing their children and often their wives and partners. When police finally raided his huge finca, Mas de la Chaparra, a bright pink building, near the village of Vistabella del Maestrat, on March 15, they were astonished by what they found. Aside from €15,000 in cash, they discovered over 100 valuable watches, but the most unusual was a collection of keepsakes and mementos.
they seized training manuals for members, including one, ‘A course of Miraable middle class patients into cles’ which gave them a series of giving him money and sometimes exercises and orders to follow. even their homes. This week, a long-time neighbour He even managed to enlist them of his home in Castellon, told the into ritual sex sessions, some of Olive Press Tio Toni would inithem filmed on camera. tially not charge for the ‘health’ In some of his most depraved services he provided. acts, he allegedly took the virginiThe woman, a fortune teller, visty of teenagers, in front of his folited his practice in Castellon on lowers, also on camera. many occasions and ‘nearly got He managed to first snare his sucked in’. victims through an alternative She said: “I spent months going health practice in the coastal city to his consultation because he Orgies of Castellon. said he was a healer. He put his At the clinic, which doubled as a These included drawers full of bi- hands on me, claiming it would health shop, he conned his vic- zarre hair cuttings and dozens of cure me. tims into believing their health religious calling cards. “But it soon became clear he was - and lives - would improve by There were numerous storage trying to manipulate me, espejoining his cult, called Vistabella. devices and computers and ‘a cially when after a few sessions As well as saying that he had been bunker full of security and sur- he asked me to go to a private chosen ‘as an envoy from God’ veillance equipment’ revealed the back room with him. and he was ‘cleaning up society’, local mayor. “That was the moment when I felt he told them he was able to cure There were also allegedly videos something strange was going on.” their ailments, including cancer. of sexual orgies in which ritual Asking to remain anonymous, But once they had moved to live p r a c t i c e s she continon his giant inland estate in the r e g u l a r l y ued: “He was rural Maestrazgo region of Valen- took place. over-friendcia, they effectively became his Meanwhile, ly with me, slaves. and told me Working around the he was sent clock on a schedule from God and their leader dictated, that’s why he PSYCHIATRIST: Miguel Perlado they had no idea, at grew his hair out like Jesus. “He was cerOpen every day tainly very persuasive Closed Monday and I saw a lot of people become totally obsessed with him,” she continued. “He made them feel they were totally loved.” Over the course of ‘a few years’ she lost an alarming four friends to the sect, SITE: The sect’s compound in rural Valencia as well as a female member of her own family. “I was so worrie I ended up organising a meeting with them to try and tell them that this guy was manipulating us, but they just refused to reservas@palaciodelabellota.com believe me,” she continued. www.palaciodelabellota.com
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SECT: Leader Tio Toni
She revealed how Toni continually managed to expand and add to his inland estate in order to house his growing number of ‘believers’. When she tried more recently to get her friends out, she revealed how Toni had sent some of them to her home threatening to expose her as a witch. “They accused me of having done witchcraft on a child in the sect who had got really ill or died,” she explained. “It was very intimidating.” A psychologist, who called in police after he began working with a number of victims last year, said the abuse on the group and, in particular, children was ‘truly shocking’. Miguel Perlado told the Olive Press that the victims had first come to him ‘very confused’ about what was going on inside. “They could barely even describe the place where they had lived for so long,” he revealed, adding that they were threatened about speaking out ‘or they would get bad energy’. He said they ended up becoming very isolated from their family and friends and Tio Toni even made them become isolated from each other and ‘encouraged conflict between them’.
Burdened
They were burdened with many chores and the house was continually upgraded and maintained, so they ‘could not think for themselves’. He added that many of the minors didn’t attend school and also created ‘alternative identities’ because they didn’t have the capacity to explain what was going on. He added that it was possible the place was visited by foreigners and other expats, but the main sect was Spanish. A total of 12 victims were ‘liberated’ when police raided the farm, including two children, aged 13 and eight, who have been taken in by Valencia social services. This week, six of nine adult members were given bail while three, including Toni remain in custody.