Irish rugby stars have two days to launch appeal in rape case
Players can challenge French decision to send them to trial
IRISH rugby players Chris Farrell and Denis Coulson have until the close of business on Thursday to appeal the decision to send them to trial following an alleged sexual assault.
Mr Coulson, 28, is charged, along with two former teammates from the FC Grenoble team – French player Loick Jammes, 27, and New Zealander Rory Grice, 32 – of participating in an alleged gang rape of a 21-year-old student.
It is alleged this happened in the early hours of March 12, 2017 in a hotel in Mérignac, on the outskirts of Bordeaux.
Mr Farrell, 29, who was also playing for
‘At least three men’ intend to appeal
Grenoble at the time, and another player from that team, New Zealander Dylan Hayes, 28, are said to be witnesses and are charged with failing to prevent the crime.
Last week, the Bordeaux appeals court confirmed all five players would be put on trial in a French assizes court, which hears serious criminal cases.
A lawyer involved in the case has been reported as saying that at least three of the men intend to appeal to the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court. It could annul proceedings if the defence teams successfully argue proper procedures have not been followed and concludes that the men would not get a fair trial. Even one appeal will suspend the case for all concerned until the Court of Cassation deliberates and it is understood a full trial is unlikely to happen before at least one year.
The three charged with gang rape could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The maximum punishment for failing to prevent a crime is five years.
Mr Coulson had played professional rugby for three French teams and Connacht. He ended his professional career after playing for US Carcassonne during the 2019-2020 season, the Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
After Mr Farrell was charged, it was confirmed that he would not be considered for selection for the national team or be involved with Munster while legal proceedings are ongoing in France.
All five accused were teammates playing for FC Grenoble, in eastern France, when the gang rape is alleged to have happened.
The legal source said the appeals court had found ‘sufficient evidence that Mr Farrell and Mr Hayes failed to prevent the crime committed in Bordeaux on March 12, 2017 and ordered that they be charged and sent before the assizes court’.
The victim was said to be a 21year-old French student, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
She is said to have met the players in a pub after their team played a match against Union Bordeaux Bègles. She then accompanied the men to a disco in Bordeaux where all were seen drinking heavily, according to court evidence.
The woman then accompanied them to their hotel at around 4am, where the party was allegedly caught on CCTV looking very drunk. Mr Coulson is said to have recorded a video on his mobile phone showing the woman performing sex acts, according to French prosecutors.
Witnesses who saw the young woman at 7.30am described her as extremely upset and having difficulty expressing herself.
She later told a taxi driver: ‘I was raped. There were several of them’, before filing a complaint to Bordeaux police a few hours later.
The question of consent is central to the case. Denis Dreyfus, the lawyer for Loick Jammes, told AFP that in her first statement the alleged victim said she feared she had consented.
But the appeals court decision ‘clearly establishes’ there ‘could not have been consent’ due to her vulnerability at the time of the events, according to the woman’s lawyer, Anne Cadiot-Feidt. helen.bruce@dailymail.ie
‘There could not have been consent’