Coline Berry's conviction for defamation annulled by the Court of Cassation

The Court of Cassation on Tuesday annulled the conviction of Richard Berry’s daughter, Coline Berry-Rojtman, for defamation of her ex-mother-in-law Jeane Manson. The Court “overturns and annuls in all its provisions” the judgment of the Court of Appeal of Riom (Puy-de-Dôme) rendered on December 8, 2022, and refers the case to the Court of Appeal of Lyon.

“It’s a huge relief and the beginning of the end of an injustice,” said Patrick Klugman, Coline Berry-Rojtman’s lawyer. “These trials are in every way from another time and another era. Coline Berry-Rojtman, for having denounced the facts she suffered in her childhood, was muzzled and judicially mistreated. We are not going to stop there,” he added.

For Jacques Verdier, Jeane Manson’s lawyer, the judgment of the Court of Cassation “is a technical judgment which judges a decision and not the merits of the case”: “He says that the court (of appeal) did not sufficiently clarified whether or not the remarks had a sufficient factual basis. “My client will face this new trial with pugnacity and combativeness,” he added.

On April 14, 2022, the Aurillac court sentenced Coline Berry-Rojtman, 47, to a fine of 2,000 euros for defamation. The actor’s daughter also had to pay 20,000 euros in damages to her former mother-in-law, as well as 5,000 euros in legal costs. The Riom Court of Appeal confirmed this conviction, adding the same sum in legal costs, a total of 10,000 euros.

In an article published by Le Monde in February 2021, Coline Berry-Rojtman spoke of the sexual violence she suffered as a minor in 1984 and 1985 at the home of her father who then lived with Jeane Manson, accused of having participated with him in these attacks. The 73-year-old former singer had decided to sue her ex-daughter-in-law for defamation before the Aurillac court, in Cantal, where she lives part of the year. Also implicated, the journalists of Le Monde and the daily were not convicted. The investigation targeting the actor accused of incest by his daughter was dismissed on August 31, 2022 due to statute of limitations.