Ireland international Denis Coulson goes on trial along with four other rugby stars over the gang rape of a student, as court hears graphic details of objects ‘used to abuse victim’

Irish international Denis Coulson, along with four other rugby players, was tried today in France for the alleged gang rape of a student.

The trial, held in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux, was originally scheduled for June but was delayed after Coulson was seriously injured in a traffic accident.

Coulson is “still weak” but will be present at the trial, said his lawyer, Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt.

The former prop, 30, is accused of gang rape, as are New Zealander Rory Grice, 34, and Frenchman Loick Jammes, 30.

Irish national Chris Farrell, 31, and New Zealander Dylan Hayes, 40, are charged with failing to prevent a crime.

In the early hours of March 12, 2017, the student, identified only as V., left a hotel on the outskirts of Bordeaux, where the Grenoble team (FCG) spent the night after losing a Top 14 match against UBB local team.

The 20-year-old girl filed a complaint with the police, saying that she had met the players in a bar along with two friends and had accompanied them to a nightclub where everyone was drinking a lot.

The student said she did not remember how she got from the club to the hotel where she woke up naked on a bed and with a crutch inserted into her vagina.

He saw two naked men in the room and others fully clothed.

Coulson, Jammes, and Grice testified that they had sexual relations with V. but claimed that the encounter was consensual and that the student had been proactive in provoking it.

Farrell, owner of the crutch, was present, as was Hayes.

“Maybe this girl didn’t want what happened to happen, but her behavior didn’t suggest to these kids, at least to my client, that she disagreed,” Dreyfus-Schmidt said.

“When you go to a nightclub and drink a lot, it’s not to exchange candy but to have relationships with guys,” the lawyer said.

‘She was very active. She kissed him (Coulson) in the club, performed fellatio on him in the taxi and indicated that she was willing.

V.’s lawyer, Anne Cadiot-Feidt, rejected the argument, saying the players had acted “like thugs.”

Based on the statements of the accused and witnesses, as well as a sex tape filmed by Coulson, investigators concluded that there were several incidents of fellatio and that V. was introduced to a banana, a baby bottle, and crutches. in the vagina.

A toxicology report indicated his blood alcohol level was between 2.2 and 3 grams, a level considered in the danger zone for alcohol poisoning.

CCTV footage showed she was having difficulty standing up when she arrived at the hotel and was being supported by a player.

Cadiot-Feidt rejected the players’ version and said of his client V.: “You can’t expect anyone to be perfect all the time.”

While the decision to drink as much as she had been her client’s, it did not authorize anyone “to do whatever they wanted with their body,” she said.

The players, he stated, had a duty to “protect” the woman.

“You don’t have to be a superhero, but you can call a taxi without exploiting or allowing others to exploit the weakened state he was in,” the lawyer said.

The three main defendants left Grenoble in 2017 after the allegations emerged to pursue their careers at other clubs.

Rape allegations have recently rocked the world of international rugby.

The French trial comes just over a week before an Argentine judge decides whether to dismiss charges against two French international rugby players accused of raping a woman after a match in the South American country.

Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, both 21, were detained for weeks in Argentina after the alleged July attack.

And last month, a Fijian player for the Dax club in southwestern France was sentenced to a year’s suspended prison sentence for sexual assault and violence during an evening of drinking.