Despite everything, for the lawyer of his daughter Coline, “no one will be able to say that she is a liar”.
Opened more than a year and a half ago, the investigation targeting actor Richard Berry, accused by his eldest daughter Coline of incest when she was a minor, was dismissed on Wednesday by the Paris prosecutor’s office for cause. prescription. This investigation, opened on January 25, 2021 for sexual assault on a 15-year-old minor by ascendant against Richard Berry and corruption of a 15-year-old minor for Jeane Manson, the actor’s former companion, “was closed without further action. this day because of the acquisition of the prescription of the public action”, indicated the prosecution, confirming information from BFMTV.
Coline Berry-Rojtman, born in 1976 from the union between Richard Berry and actress Catherine Hiegel, had filed a complaint against her father, denouncing acts of rape and sexual assault on a 15-year-old minor by ascending and corruption of minor in the years 1984-85. “Coline Berry denounced these facts knowing full well that they were prescribed, for there to be an investigation”, reacted to AFP his lawyer, Me Patrick Klugman. “This takes note that the facts are prescribed. We therefore understand that the facts are characterized, and that is what we expected,” he added. “No one will be able to say that Coline Berry is a liar anymore”.
“Contrary to what may have been wrongly indicated, there is no reason to say that the facts are established,” for his part, Me Hervé Témime, who defends Richard Berry alongside Me Sophie Obadia, told AFP. “The prosecution did not say it and moreover did not have to say it,” he added. Coline Berry-Rojtman was heard in February 2021 by investigators from the Brigade for the Protection of Minors (BPM). His father, for his part, was last June.
According to his complaint, which had been quoted by Le Monde, it would have happened, around the years 1984-85, that Richard Berry proposed to his daughter “to play in the orchestra with her sexual organs and those of her partner” of the era, the singer Jeane Manson. The child would have been “forced to put his mouth on the sex” of his father, according to the daily. In a long text published on his Instagram account, the actor had denied “with all (his) strength and without ambiguity these filthy accusations”. “I have never had inappropriate or incestuous relations with Coline, nor with any of my children,” he assured.
Freedom of speech
According to Richard Berry, 72, the accusations of sexually assaulting his daughter began seven years ago, when his new wife was pregnant and Coline, who was four years younger than her, was at the same time expecting a child . “For years, I tried to talk to him (…) without success. I opened up to psychiatrists, my family, my friends,” he said. Coline Berry-Rojtman for her part claimed to have decided to take the plunge after the publication of Camille Kouchner’s book “La Familia Grande”, at the origin of the Olivier Duhamel affair and a release of speech in France on incest. The family of this figure of cinema and theater, described as conflicting, has since been divided between his supporters and those of his daughter.
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In April 2022, Coline Berry-Rojtman was sentenced by the Aurillac court for defamation of her ex-mother-in-law Jeane Manson. Coline Berry-Rojtman appealed this decision. “We are approaching the trial in Riom with serenity and impatience,” assured Me Klugman on Wednesday.