Five rugby players, formerly with French side Grenoble, are facing trial for raping or failing to protect a student from alleged sexual assault in a hotel in 2017.
The trial in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux was to begin in June but was delayed after one of the defendants, Irish national Dennis Coulson, was seriously injured in a traffic accident.
One of his lawyers said that Dennis Coulson was still quite weak but would appear in court. The 30-year-old former prop is accused of gang rape, as are New Zealander Rory Grice, 34, and Frenchman Loic James, 30.
Farrell and Hayes are accused of failing to prevent the crime. The presiding judge barred media from covering the proceedings at the request of the alleged victim’s lawyers.
One of the victim’s lawyers said she was terrified of facing her attackers and repeating the whole ordeal.
In March 2017, the student, identified only as V, left a hotel on the outskirts of Bordeaux in tears where the Grenoble team had spent the night after losing a top-14 match to local team Bordeaux Beagles.
The then-20-year-old filed a police complaint, saying, “I met the players in a bar with two friends and went with them to a nightclub where there was plenty to drink. I did not remember how I got from the club to the hotel. When I woke up, I was naked on a bed with something inserted into my private parts. I saw two men in the room, naked and one fully clothed.”
Coulson, James and Grice said, “We had sexual relations with V, but the relationship was consensual, and the student-initiated it.”
Dreyfus-Schmidt said, “The girl may not have wanted what happened, but her behaviour did not make the boys, or at least my client, feel that she did not consent. When you go to a nightclub and drink too much, that means having relations with boys.”
V’s lawyer Anne Cadiot-Feidt argued that the players acted “like thugs.” In court, Gros added, “It’s plain to see that she was in no state to give her consent as these men who carried her, who were with her, know perfectly well.”
Based on statements and a sex tape, investigators found incidents of fellatio and object insertion. A toxicology report showed her blood alcohol level was dangerously high, between 2.2 and 3 grams. CCTV footage showed her struggling to stand and being helped by a player.
Cadiot-Feidt dismissed the players’ version, saying her client shouldn’t be expected to be perfect all the time. While V chose to drink, it didn’t give anyone the right “to do whatever they wanted with her body.” The lawyer said the players had a duty to protect her, not exploit her state of weakness.
The three main defendants left Grenoble in 2017 after the accusations to continue their careers elsewhere.
Rape accusations have recently rocked international rugby. The French trial is happening just before an Argentine judge decides whether to drop charges against two French rugby players accused of raping a woman in Argentina. Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, both 21, were held in Argentina after the alleged assault in July.
Last month, a Fijian player at the French club Dax received a one-year suspended prison sentence for sexual assault and violence during a night of heavy drinking.