In Grenoble, five ex-rugby players tried in court for gang rape

JUSTICE – Five ex-rugby players from Grenoble appear from this Monday, December 2 afternoon before the Gironde Assize Court, accused of having raped a young woman or of having witnessed the attack without intervening, after a “third half” drunk in Bordeaux in 2017.

The trial, scheduled until December 13, 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 later. early.

The former pillar, aged 30, is being prosecuted for gang rape with 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.

No memories between the box and the hotel

On March 12, 2017, V., 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 student filed a complaint, declaring that she had met FCG players in a bar and followed them to a nightclub, where everyone had drunk a lot. She didn't remember anything between the disco and the hotel where she had come to her senses, naked on a bed with a crutch in her vagina, surrounded by two naked men and others dressed.

Coulson, Jammes and Grice admitted to sexual relations by claiming that V. was consenting. Farrell, who owned the crutches, was in the room and Hayes also witnessed the incident.

« Protect » rather than “ enjoy »

“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'”considers Coulson’s lawyer, Me Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt.

According to a toxicological expert, the victim had between 2.2 and 3 grams of alcohol per liter of blood. On video surveillance images, she can barely stand up when she arrives at the hotel.

“No one has to be perfect from dawn to bed. It is not because (alcoholism) is of one's doing that it authorizes (others) to do anything and everything with one's body.argues his lawyer, Me Anne Cadiot-Feidt, for whom the accused should have ” protect “ rather than ” enjoy “ or from “let enjoy” why “weak situation”.

Several cases have recently tarnished the image of French rugby, including the indictment for aggravated rape, in Argentina, of internationals Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou. The decision on a possible dismissal of the case is currently under deliberation.

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