At the closed-door trial of ex-Rugby players from Grenoble accused of a gang rape, the victim gave her version of the night of the events in 2017 on Monday, between memories and “black-out”, her lawyers told AFP .
“She explained herself with sincerity and modesty. She had the emotion that you can imagine but she was very dignified,” underlined Me Gaessy Gros. “She said the same thing she always said, right from the start. »
The young woman, who was 20 at the time, said she was raped while she was in a daze after a very alcoholic evening, which followed a Top 14 match between Grenoble and Bordeaux-Bègles. The defendants, the Irishman Denis Coulson, the Frenchman Loïck Jammes and the New Zealander Rory Grice, recognize the sexual relations but plead consent.
The Irishman Chris Farrell and the New Zealander Dylan Hayes appear for failure to prevent a crime for having witnessed the scene, without intervening, in a hotel room in Mérignac.
“She came back to this evening, the memories she had of it, which are quite few. The blackout begins when you leave the disco,” continued Me Gros.
“There is no question of thinking that this young woman is lying”
The victim, who had met the players in a bar and followed them to a nightclub, alcohol flowing freely, claims to have come to her senses naked on a hotel bed, with a crutch in her vagina, surrounded by two naked men and others dressed.
“For us, there is absolutely no question of thinking that this young woman is lying. She has a trauma, she wakes up, she finds herself in a hotel room with rugby players, naked. We understand that she is in a panic situation,” declared Me Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, lawyer for Denis Coulson.
“But the problem is not what she feels, it’s what the boys thought of her behavior,” she adds, referring to a video filmed by her client during a sexual act. According to her, the young woman appears “active, she is not a weakling, she is not in an alcoholic coma. Her behavior suggests that she was consenting and participatory. »
The young woman had to answer questions from the defense before an expert psychiatrist described her state of consciousness, during the events, as “automatic pilot”, according to lawyers from both camps. Everyone interprets the expression and its implications in their own way.
“A form of refusal but without manifestation of this refusal”?
The expert says “that she has no memory but that does not mean that she does not have the capacity to act”, estimated Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, lawyer for Denis Coulson. “If you see someone who is completely listless, in an alcoholic coma and you abuse her sexually, that is not the same as if you see a woman who is acting out, who is moaning, who is behaving in a coordinate. This is what they perceived,” she insists.
“How do you want them to become aware, while she is in a subconfused state, that there would be a form of refusal but without manifestation of this refusal, without struggling, while she responds to sexual acts? », agrees Me Valérie Coriatt, counsel to Rory Grice.
For Me Gros, the expert stressed that the complainant was not “in the manipulation”. “He explained to us that she was in a situation where her brain was not capable of recording what was happening, which explains her lacunar amnesia, that is to say the black hole overall. , with a few reminiscences, a few flashes. »
“Autopilot”, this means “that she did not know what she was doing” even if “she could respond to external stimuli”, added the young woman’s lawyer, for whom he will return to court “to decide the degree of awareness of each of the accused”.
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