Coline Berry-Rojtman was sentenced Thursday, April 14, for “defamation” in the case of charges of rape, incestuous sexual assault and corruption of a minor that she brought against her father, Richard Berry, and the ex-companion of the actor, Jeane Manson. The latter had seized the Aurillac judicial court with a complaint against her ex-daughter-in-law, claiming that her career and her health had been affected by the scandal caused by the article in the World published in the newspaper on February 5, 2021. The newspaper and the two authors of the article, also sued for defamation, have been acquitted.
The reasons for the judgment were not available Thursday. Lawyers should have access to it shortly. The conviction of Coline Berry-Rojtman may seem severe. First by its amounts. The court condemned her to pay 20,000 euros to Jeane Manson in damages, 5,000 euros in respect of the plaintiff’s lawyer’s fees, and a fine of 2,000 euros.
According to Christophe Bigot, lawyer for the World and libel trial technician, “Such amounts are colossal by the standards in this area”. He is delighted with the release of the newspaper, considering that the offending article “was careful, took a lot of precautions, especially by giving everyone a voice”. He nevertheless regrets that the court did not prefer to stay the proceedings as he had pleaded.
This is one of the complexities of this case. The preliminary investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office in January 2021 following the complaint of the daughter of Richard Berry is still not complete. The actor has not even been heard in this procedure yet. However, the Aurillac court chose not to wait to judge the defamation. The stay of proceedings is only automatic when an accused person is called to testify in defamation proceedings, because he is no longer able to speak under oath since this would violate his defense rights.
The credibility of the implicated complainant
“We are appealing, of course”, reacts Karine Shebabo, Coline Berry-Rojtman’s lawyer. She denounces a judgment “delusional, who takes the risk of rendering a decision on facts that are the subject of a judicial investigation”. But it is above all on the merits that his anger explodes. “Known parents and abusers have a bright future ahead of them”says M.and Shebabo, who underlines the ordeal of his client “victim of incest, victim of a slap on the day of the hearing [la nouvelle compagne de Richard Berry l’avait giflée à l’issue de l’audience] and now the victim of a slap that constitutes this judgment “.
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