Richard Berry’s eldest daughter, Coline Berry-Rojtman, who accuses him of sexual violence, was sentenced Thursday by the Aurillac court for defamation of her ex-mother-in-law, singer Jeane Manson. Coline Berry-Rojtman’s lawyer, Karine Shebabo, immediately announced to AFP that she was appealing this decision: “my client is appalled, the parents, aggressors and known, have good days ahead of them”.
Le Monde and its journalists have not been condemned
On February 14, 2021, in an article published by The world, Coline Berry-Rojtman spoke of the sexual violence she allegedly suffered when she was a minor, in 1984 and 1985, at the home of her father who was then living with Jeane Manson, accused of having participated in these attacks. The Aurillac court sentenced her to a fine of 2,000 euros for defamation following this article and for the television program “Le Live BFM”, in which she claimed that Jeane Manson was part of the sect of children of God. Coline Berry-Rojtman was also ordered to pay 20,000 euros in damages to the former singer, as well as 5,000 euros in legal costs.
Also implicated, the journalists of the World and the daily, however, were not condemned. During the hearing on April 1, the prosecutor had not asked for a conviction against The world, believing that the newspaper had acted in good faith and had deferred to the court for the rest. “It is a dismaying decision, of great violence and a bad signal sent to children”, declared Thursday Karine Shebabo, deploring that this judgment intervenes while the investigation into the facts is still in progress.
Born in 1976 from the union between Richard Berry and actress Catherine Hiegel, Coline Berry-Rojtman filed a complaint for “rape and sexual assault on a minor”, triggering the opening of a preliminary investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office. Richard Berry, 71, denies outright, as does former singer Jeane Manson, who lives part of the year in Aurillac, where she had decided to sue her ex-stepdaughter for defamation.