Two Irishmen are among five rugby players who will appear in a French court today in connection with the gang rape of a student.
Denis Coulson, a 30-year-old Dubliner, is said to have participated in the sexual attack on the 21-year-old student along with Frenchman Loick Jammes, 29, and New Zealander Rory Grice, 34.
Chris Farrell, 31, a Six Nations Championship winner with Ireland in 2018, and Dylan Hayes, 30, of New Zealand, are charged with “failing to prevent crime”.
The men will appear in court in Bordeaux on Monday afternoon for a trial scheduled for 10 days.
The five were teammates playing for FC Grenoble Rugby in eastern France when the gang rape is said to have occurred at a hotel in Merignac, a suburb of Bordeaux where the city’s airport is located, on the 12th. March 2017.
The defendants deny any wrongdoing and claim that the woman involved, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, consented to having sex with three of them while they were all extremely drunk.
Denis Coulson, a 30-year-old Dubliner, is said to have participated in the sexual attack on the then 21-year-old student.
New Zealander Rory Grice is accused of rape
Frenchman Loick Jammes is also accused of raping a student
The trial in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, the scene of the alleged rape, will focus on whether the young woman, now 27, was too drunk to consent to sex.
The plaintiff, now 27 years old and whose name is V., has chosen anonymity to protect her personal and professional life, her lawyers say.
The alleged victim is said to have met the players in a pub after his team played a match against Union Bordeaux-Bègles, before accompanying the five men to a nightclub where they were seen drinking heavily, according to rehearsal evidence. before the court.
The woman then went with the Grenoble players to their hotel at around 4am, where the party was caught on CCTV looking very drunk and barely able to stand up.
Coulson is said to have recorded a video on his mobile phone showing the woman performing sexual acts, French prosecutors allege.
Surveillance footage of her arrival at the hotel shows her struggling to stand as Coulson holds her down.
He also appears to twice prevent him from getting back into the taxi.
The victim later told another taxi driver: ‘They raped me. There were several,” before filing a complaint with the Bordeaux police a few hours later.
V. told the magistrates that the men inserted several objects into her vagina, including a banana, a baby bottle and a crutch.
V. stated that she woke up naked in a bed with a crutch in her vagina around 7:00 am next to two naked men and others still clothed.
The victim’s lawyer, Anne Cadiot-Feidt, said arguments at trial would likely focus on “the issue of the victim’s responsibility in a situation where she voluntarily put herself in a state that reduces or eliminates consent.” .
“We often ask questions about the victim’s consent and not about how the attackers judge their consent,” he added.
‘What is consent? At what point does it diminish or even disappear completely?’
Meanwhile, Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, Denis Coulson’s lawyer, said before going to court: “This is not the trial of rugby players who are rapists, it is the trial of alcohol.”
“All these young people drinking themselves to impossible states: that’s the problem in this case.”
Chris Farrell, 31, winner of the Six Nations Championship with Ireland in 2018, is accused of “failing to prevent crime”
Dylan Hayes is said to have done nothing to prevent the attack.
V. said he didn’t remember anything about how the night ended after leaving the club.
A toxicologist’s report found that V. had between 2.2 and 3.0 grams of alcohol per liter of blood at the time, well over 10 times the maximum allowed when driving in France.
Testimony from the defendants and witnesses, as well as a video Coulson filmed during a sexual act, suggest that the group performed oral sex on V. in addition to penetrating her with objects, including crutches.
Coulson, Jammes and Grice have acknowledged having sexual acts with V., but insist they were consensual.
Cadiot-Feidt denounced that there is a “high level of tolerance” towards incidents caused by alcohol among some French rugby clubs and fans.
“A lot of people still think that the woman just shouldn’t have gone out, she just shouldn’t have had anything to drink, she just shouldn’t have put herself in that situation,” he said.
All five players continued their professional careers after being arrested and later released on bail, but two of them, Coulson and Hayes, have since retired.