the essential
Five former Grenoble rugby players are on trial in Bordeaux, including three for the “gang rape” of a 20-year-old young woman after a Top 14 match. Two others are accused of “failure to assist a person in danger”.
Five rugby players, former Grenoble players, will appear before the courts from this Monday, June 17 in Bordeaux for a case of gang rape of a student during a very alcoholic Top 14 post-match in 2017. In this very media which begins at 2 p.m. and will last until June 28, three men are on trial for gang rape, two others for failure to prevent a crime. The defendants plead the “consent” of the victim, then aged 20.
What happened ?
The Gironde Assize Court must look into the facts that occurred in March 2017 in a hotel in Mérignac, in the Bordeaux suburbs, after a match between Union Bordeaux-Bègles and FC Grenoble. During a festive “third half”, Grenoble players crossed paths with several young women before returning to the hotel with the complainant, V., herself very alcoholic. A few hours later, the latter said she came to her senses naked on a bed, with a crutch in her vagina, surrounded by two naked men and others dressed. In tears, she immediately said she had been the victim of an attack. “This is not the trial of rapist rugby players, it is the trial of alcohol. All these young people who drink until they get into impossible states, that is the problem of this case”, wants to believe Me Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, lawyer for the Irishman Denis Coulson.
Who are the accused players?
In addition to the latter, now aged 30, the New Zealander Rory Grice, 34, and the Frenchman Loïck Jammes, 29, are also accused of gang rape. The Irishman Chris Farrell (31), the most successful of the five with a coronation in the Six Nations Tournament in 2018, and the New Zealander Dylan Hayes, 30, are appearing for having witnessed the scene without intervening. The first afternoon of the hearing on Monday, which will open with the drawing of lots by the jurors, should make it possible to examine the personality of these last two accused. In a world of rugby where the problem of alcohol has been highlighted in several reports, the civil party hopes that the hearing will contribute to raising awareness.
“General alcoholism” and consent
One of the issues in the trial is the question of the consent of the victim, who says she does not remember anything between leaving the nightclub and waking up at the hotel. “The current climate in this type of business is not conducive to understanding things. We are more interested in the story of the girl’s consent than in the perception of the consent of the alleged perpetrators”, they themselves under the influence of alcohol, points out Me Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt. According to a toxicological expert, V. would have had between 2.2 and 3 grams of alcohol per liter of blood at that time. On video surveillance images upon her arrival at the hotel, she can barely stand up, according to the prosecution.
Based on the hearings of the accused, witnesses and a video shot by Denis Coulson during a sexual act, the investigators mention in particular several fellatios, as well as the introduction of a banana, a bottle and crutches into the vagina of the young woman. Coulson, Jammes and Grice admitted to having had sexual relations with V. but ensured that she consented and had even taken the initiative. Farrell, who owned the crutches, was in the room during the incident and Hayes witnessed the scene. All five players continued their professional careers afterward, but two of them, Coulson and Hayes, have now retired.
