On the tenth day of the trial which involves three former players of FCG, the professional rugby club of Grenoble, Denis Coulson was invited to speak. The former pillar apologized to the alleged victim as well as to his teammates, without “questioning himself” according to the young woman’s lawyer.
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More than seven years after the events, the Irishman Denis Coulson apologizes this Wednesday, December 11. The former Grenoble player, and two of his former teammates, have been on trial for ten days, behind closed doors in Bordeaux, for rape dating back to March 2017. “He asked her for forgiveness (…) and he asked his teammates for forgiveness because he feels a responsibility to the extent that it was he who led this young girl into the room”declared his lawyer, Me Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt.
“At the same time, Mr. Coulson doesn’t question himself that much.”replied Me Anne Cadiot-Feidt, lawyer for the victim, for whom he apologizes “compared to him”, “a little bit like for children”. The former pillar, 30 years old today, is being prosecuted for gang rape with New Zealander Rory Grice, 34, and Frenchman Loïck Jammes, 30.
All three plead for the consent of the victim with whom they had spent a very alcoholic evening after a Top 14 match. First in a bar then in a nightclub, before ending the night in a hotel near Bordeaux. The young woman came to her senses there the next day, naked on a bed with a crutch in her vagina, surrounded by two naked men and others dressed.
“It is extremely difficult to reconstruct the facts more than seven years later, continued Mr. Dreyfus-Schmidt after his client’s questioning. There are only testimonies that overlap and we try to hold on to the few material elements that we have.”
“He was 21 at the time of the events, he was drunk, there was a kind of sexual euphoria in this room and at that moment, he sincerely thought, as she was capable of action, that she was All right”added the lawyer.
This Wednesday, the hearing continued with the interrogation of Loïck Jammes, who is currently playing in Aix-en-Provence. His defense requested, in vain, a new medico-legal expertise after a forensic pathologist mandated to replace the doctor who carried out the original analyzes, unavailable for health reasons, had “invalid” the work of his colleague at the helm, according to Me Denis Dreyfus.
“On a medico-legal level, we cannot demonstrate anything. It is likely, in a file which is strewn with multiple question marks, to provide an additional one”Jammes’ lawyer told the press. The Irishman Chris Farrell (31 years old) and the New Zealander Dylan Hayes (40 years old) appear on trial for having witnessed all or part of the alleged rape without intervening.
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