The trial which will open at 2 p.m. was initially scheduled to be held in June, behind closed doors, but was postponed in the absence of a defendant, Irishman Denis Coulson, injured in a serious car accident a few days earlier. “He is still quite weak, he has lost a lot of weight but he is quite courageous and he will be there,” his lawyer, Me Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, told AFP.
Meeting in a bar
The former pillar, aged 30, will appear until December 13 for gang rape, like New Zealander Rory Grice, 34, and Frenchman Loïck Jammes, 30. The Irishman Chris Farrell (31 years old) and the New Zealander Dylan Hayes (40 years old) answer for failure to prevent a crime. The latter passed through the SA XV during the 2018 – 2019 season.
On March 12, 2017 in the early morning, V., aged 20, left in tears a hotel in Mérignac, on the outskirts of Bordeaux, where the Grenoble team had spent the night after a Top 14 match lost against UBB , the local club.
The young woman filed a complaint, declaring that she had met FCG players in a bar, where she was with two friends, and that she had followed them to a nightclub, where she and they had drunk a lot.
Crutch in the vagina
The student claimed to have no memory between the nightclub and the hotel where she came to her senses, naked on a bed with a crutch in her vagina, surrounded by two naked men and others dressed.
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Coulson, Jammes and Grice admitted to having had sexual relations with V. but claim that she was consenting, even taking the initiative. Farrell, who owned the crutches, was in the room and Hayes also witnessed the incident.
“Perhaps this young girl did not want what happened but her behavior did not suggest to these boys, at least to my client, that she did not agree,” believes the lawyer for Denis Coulson.
Sextape
“When we go to a nightclub and drink a lot, it’s not to make small talk. We want to have relationships with boys. She was very active, she kissed him in a nightclub, gave him oral sex in the taxi, she sent him signs saying: 'I'm up for it,'” continues Mr. Dreyfus-Schmidt.
Based on the interviews of the accused, witnesses and a sex tape filmed by Coulson, investigators mention several fellatios and the introduction of a banana, a bottle and crutches into the victim's vagina.
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According to a toxicological expert, she had between 2.2 and 3 grams of alcohol per liter of blood. On video surveillance images, she had difficulty standing when she arrived at the hotel, to the point of being “constantly held” by a player, notes the accusation.
“No one has to be perfect from dawn to bed. It is not because (alcoholism) is her fault that it authorizes (others) to do anything and everything with her body,” argues the young woman’s lawyer, Me Anne Cadiot-Feidt. .
“Without turning into a superhero, you can call a taxi and not take advantage. »
“The obligation, when we detect a risky situation in a person, is to protect them. Without transforming yourself into a superhero, you can call a taxi and not take advantage, or allow yourself to be taken advantage of, the weak situation in which you find yourself,” adds the former president, castigating the “thug” behavior of the “gods of stadium” outside the field.
A Dax player sentenced in November
Several cases of sexual assault have tarnished the image of French rugby in recent months, notably with the indictment for aggravated rape, in Argentina, of internationals Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou. The decision on a possible dismissal of the case is under deliberation.
On November 22, a Fijian player from Dax (Landes, Pro D2) was sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence for sexual assault and violence during a heavily alcoholic evening. The three main defendants in the Bordeaux trial had left Grenoble after their indictment in 2017, continuing their careers in other clubs.
