Irish rugby stars in trial over ‘gang rape’
French court told student was attacked
TWO Irishmen are among five rugby players sent to trial yesterday over the alleged gang rape of a young woman in France.
Judicial sources said Denis Coulson, 28, is alleged to have taken part in the alleged attack along with Frenchman Loick Jammes, 27, and 32-year-old New Zealander Rory Grice.
They were originally indicted in June 2019 and an appeal against that decision has now been rejected by the Appeals Court in Bordeaux.
Chris Farrell, 29, who is also Irish, is meanwhile accused of allegedly “failing to prevent the crime”, along with 28-year-old Dylan Hayes, who is from New Zealand.
All five were teammates at FC Grenoble when the gang rape is alleged to have happened in a hotel in Bordeaux on March 12, 2017. Now they have been given until Thursday to launch a second appeal to Cassation – France’s highest appeal court.
Their lawyers are expected to argue due process has been violated and they would not get a fair trial.
The source said the Appeals Court found “sufficient evidence Farrell and Hayes failed to prevent the crime and ordered they be charged and sent before the assizes court”. The three men charged with the alleged gang rape face up to a maximum of 20 years in prison, while the maximum punishment for failing to prevent a crime is five years.
Coulson played for Connacht and ended his professional career at Carcassonne, France, in 2020. Farrell was playing for Munster when he was charged, but his career has been suspended while legal proceedings are active.
Their alleged victim was said to be a 21-year-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-begles. According to court evidence, she then accompanied the five men to a disco in Bordeaux where all were seen drinking heavily. The court heard the woman then accompanied the Grenoble players to their hotel at around 4am, where the party was caught on CCTV looking very drunk. French prosecutors allege Coulson recorded a video on his phone showing the woman performing sex acts.
Before filling a complaint to police a few hours later, she allegedly told a taxi driver: “I was raped. There were several of them.” Denis Dreyfus, barrister for Jammes, said her first statement to police described “consensual sex”.
According to a spokesman for the woman’s defence team, the Appeals Court decision “clearly establishes there could not have been consent”.