It’s the business in the business. That of a defamation complaint after accusations of incest. Comedian Richard Berry’s eldest daughter, Coline Berry-Rojtman, who accused her father of incest in the 1980s, appeared on Friday 1is April, in Aurillac, following a complaint for defamation from one of the former wives of the actor, Jeane Manson. The judgment was reserved for April 14, after a tense hearing at the Aurillac court
In February 2021, in an article published by The worldColine 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.
Born in 1976 from the union between Richard Berry and actress Catherine Hiegel, Coline Berry-Rojtman had filed a complaint for “rape and sexual assault on a minor”, on January 25, 2021, triggering the opening of a preliminary investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office.
It’s heartbreaking for a father
Richard Berry, 71, denies outright, as does former singer Jeane Manson who lives part of the year in Aurillac, where she sued her ex-stepdaughter for defamation.
” Everything is false. They are unfortunately lies and she, I think, ended up believing them. It’s heartbreaking for a father. I have no attraction for children. I am deeply, frankly, desperate”said the actor on the stand.
“I didn’t want to file a complaint because she’s my daughter. I wanted to testify to support Jeane Manson”he explained, referring to a ” particular situation “ : “We have still not been heard” as part of the preliminary investigation opened with the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The prosecutor did not ask for a conviction against Le Monde, considering that the newspaper had acted in good faith and left the rest to the court.
The start of the hearing on Friday morning gave rise to long debates between lawyers, those of the defense pleading the impossibility of judging defamation, while the facts denounced by Coline Berry-Rojtman are the subject of investigation. But the court did not follow them, and launched the interrogation of the latter.
The laughs of Jeane Manson
At the bar, she repeats what she said in The world about the sexual games led by Richard Berry, including that of “the orchestra”in which she had to play with her father’s sex, compared to a “flute” or to a “trumpet”, sometimes in the presence of Jeane Manson. She also mentioned “kisses on the mouth with the tongue” : “I only knew that”she confided.
Coline Berry-Rojtman claims to have tried to talk about it with her father but did not “never got anything from him” car “he is in denial”.
Jeane Manson, after having laughed ostensibly, several times, during the interrogation of her accuser, answered in her turn the questions of the court. For her, the article World “is such a despicable, ugly lie. She never saw me naked, she never touched my breasts. (…) She lies and, when we lie, we are always discovered.assures the former American singer.
In front of her, Coline Berry-Rojtman fumes and cannot help but react when her former mother-in-law assures us that, “ever since she was 10, everyone has called her ‘the mytho'”.
A slap in the court
The end of the very long hearing was marked by a rare incident: the current companion of Richard Berry, Pascale Louage got up from her place to go and slap Coline Berry-Rojtman, according to concordant testimonies gathered by Agence France- Press (AFP) on site.
“Violence has no place in this place”threw Me Karine Shebabo, Coline’s lawyer, leaving the room. “Insults are violence”retorted Pascale Louage, supported by the actor.
Me Shebabo then took the direction of the Aurillac police station to file a complaint. “In twenty years at the bar, I have never seen this. This is the whole difficulty of the victims of incest in denouncing the facts: we are obliged to knock to silence them”she said before leaving.