THE SON of a D-Day veteran has been summoned to France in a case surrounding his father’s war medals.

Tony Berridge, of Horspath, gave the medals to a Frenchwoman to put in a museum in 2007, then could not find her for four years.

She eventually turned up and the medals were finally given to a museum, but the woman has now said Mr Berridge wrongly accused her of stealing the medals.

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Mr Berridge’s father, Sgt Wilfred Berridge, was among the 43rd-52nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry glider troops who parachuted into occupied Normandy on D-Day, 1944, to capture the famous Pegasus Bridge from German troops, helping to win the war.

Sgt Berridge, who also served in Burma, died in 1969, aged 59.

Mr Berridge said his father’s medals belonged in the Pegasus Bridge museum, which is near the site.

The 69-year-old, who is recovering from a heart operation in July, said: “To be honest, I don’t really want to go.”

The retired RAC patrolman said he decided he must attend the court hearing in Paris on March 5.

Alan Edwards, chairman of The Airborne Assault Normandy Trust, helped Mr Berridge retrieve his medals, which are now housed at the Pegasus Bridge museum.

He has arranged for the Anglo French Association for the Merville Battery, of which he is vice-president, to pay Mr Berridge’s legal costs.

Mr Edwards said: “It feels like Tony is being harassed by the unreasonable demands of an unreasonable woman.”

Mr Berridge, who lives with partner June in Centre Rise, Horspath, is now trying to find legal representation.

The saga began when he gave the medals to Francoise Gondrée-Anquetil in 2007, after he said she promised to give them to the museum.

He lost contact and there followed a four-year battle to find her, which saw Mr Berridge receive support from President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In 2011 he retrieved the medals.

But in January he received a summons from a French judge outlining an allegation that, in his letter to President Sarkozy, he had accused Ms Gondrée-Anquetil “of having defrauded him”.

Mr Berridge has not been summoned for a court hearing, but a private hearing byjudge Marion Potier.

He will appear in her chambers for her to determine whether the case merits a full trial.

Ms Gondrée-Anquetil said: “Mr Berridge proceeded with incorrect information, this is why an explanation has been asked for.”