The daughter of the late comedian Jean-Guy Moreau, Sophie, dropped a bomb during her hearing on Wednesday. Not only did she testify about the attacks she allegedly suffered at the age of 15 and 16, but she spoke of the rape that her mother, Suzanne Deniger, experienced in the late 1990s and her sister Véronique, who was in a relationship with Gilbert Rozon.
Posted at 2:14 p.m.
Sophie Moreau explained to judge Chantal Tremblay the circumstances during which she learned of the alleged rape of her mother in December 2017.
The defendant was preparing to give her statement to the police in October 2017. The investigator asked her if she could identify any witnesses. She gave three names: her best teenage friend, her older sister Véronique, who was in a relationship with Gilbert Rozon from 1989 to 2001, and her mother, to whom she told everything in 2005.
“It took a long time before my mother told me about her encounter with the police. I didn’t understand why. On December 27, we were at my house, in the kitchen. Véronique, my mother and me. I asked my mother the question. “How was it?” She froze, then she replied: me too. My sister and I fell apart. Mom was crying…”
According to his testimony, his mother – who died in 2022 – would have gone to eat with Mr. Rozon at Latini.
At the end of the evening, Mr. Rozon would have accompanied her home, rue Garnier. That evening, according to what she said to her daughters, but also to the police officers who questioned him, he raped her. When leaving, Gilbert Rozon would have told him: you can’t say anything, I’m with Véro. According to her memory, it was in 1998 or 1999. Sophie was employed by Juste pour Rire.
Gilbert Rozon’s relationship with Véronique Moreau is well known, it was also discussed in the preliminary examination of Mr. Rozon, but the alleged assault of his mother has never been mentioned before.
Sophie Moreau started working for Juste pour Rire in 1988. She was barely 15 years old. It was his father, the late comedian Jean-Guy Moreau, a friend of Gilbert Rozon, who helped him get this summer job. Mme Moreau, who worked as a receptionist, remembers that initially Mr. Rozon was very nice. “He took me under his wing. I trusted him. »
That summer, she alleged a first assault, which allegedly occurred one evening during the festival. Mr. Rozon allegedly invited him to accompany him backstage at the show of French comedian Alex Métayer. While strolling through the corridors of Place des Arts, Mr. Rozon stopped in a dark place that she described as a “machine room”.
“He leaned on me, hugged me and asked me to kiss him. I froze. I shook my head no. I was so helpless that he let me go. He had a little light smile. We continued our way backstage. » At the time, Gilbert Rozon was 33 years old.
Sophie Moreau remembers the confusion she felt: “I didn’t understand why an adult would do that. Let a boss do that. Let a friend of my father do this. And then I wondered what I could have done to cause this…”
The following summer, when he turned 16, Mme Moreau recounted several attacks. One of them particularly struck him. His father hosted three of the five Just for Laughs galas at the St-Denis Theater. So she went to the theater to see it, but she watched the show from the back of the room, leaning on the wall of the old theater.
“During the show, Mr. Rozon came from behind, he stood on my back, he put his hands on my stomach and he said to me: kiss me, I’m going to take your virginity, I’m going to be gentle with you…” According to his testimony, Gilbert Rozon would have come on the other gala evenings and would have reiterated the same wish.
Other attacks reportedly occurred in the weeks that followed. But a few months later, his sister Véronique, who had just turned 18, told him that she had a new lover: Gilbert Rozon.
Sophie Moreau says she “failed”. My heart hurt. I felt dizzy. I told him what he had done to me. But my sister trivialized all that, she told me that I was completely wrong. »
According to what M.me Moreau, his parents, who had been separated practically since their birth, were not available. “My mother was suing my father over a pension issue, I couldn’t see myself telling them anything…”
Why didn’t she denounce Mr. Rozon before 2017? “It wasn’t realistic,” she replied. No one would have believed me, it would have been damaging for my father’s career and then my sister was in love with him! » It was only in 2005, three years after leaving Juste pour Rire, that she found the courage to tell her parents what had happened to her.
“At the time my mother said to me: what have I missed in my life as a mother that you wouldn’t talk to me about it. And dad cried. He was upset. As he drove me home, he said to me: if you had told me, I would have spoken to him. It shocked me, it disappointed me, to this day. Telling them didn’t do anything… It’s as if I hadn’t said anything. »
Sophie Moreau, who is seeking 1.25 million in punitive damages, identifies Mr. Rozon as being responsible for the dislocation of his family.
“All these stories isolated me from my family. I never had the relationship I was supposed to have with my sister, she was Mr. Rozon’s lover. And as I resented my parents, I cut ties with them for a while, because I resented them for having accepted this relationship. »
Véronique Moreau, who is not one of the nine plaintiffs, must testify this Friday. Her sister Sophie briefly mentioned a rape which allegedly occurred in 1994. “Véronique and Gilbert had left each other temporarily, she had started seeing another man. Gilbert found him in Paris, put a drug in his drink and raped him. »
