Former international rugby player jailed after being found guilty of gang raping student in France hotel

Former Ireland international Denis Coulson has been found guilty of raping a woman in Bordeaux and has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Coulson, 30, was accused of gang rape, as were New Zealander Rory Grice, 34, and Frenchman Loick Jammes, 30.

Irishman Chris Farrell, 31, and New Zealander Dylan Hayes, 40, were charged with failing to prevent a crime.

In the early hours of March 12, 2017, the student, identified only as V in court, was in tears leaving a hotel in the Bordeaux suburbs.

At that time, the Grenoble team (FCG) was spending the night after losing a Top 14 match against the local team UBB.

The 20-year-old filed a complaint with police, saying she met the players at a bar with two friends and accompanied them to a nightclub where everyone was drinking heavily.

The student said she did not remember how she got from the club to the hotel where she woke up, naked on a bed and with a crutch inserted in her vagina.

Farrell has now been handed a four-year sentence, two of which were suspended, for failing to prevent a crime.

The court was told he will not be sent to prison but will have to wear an electronic tag for two years and remain in France.

The verdicts of this trial, which began a week ago, were delivered in room G of the Bordeaux Assize Court.

Jammes, from France, was convicted of rape and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Grice, from New Zealand, was convicted of rape and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Hayes, also from New Zealand, was given a two-year suspended sentence for failing to prevent a crime.

All five defendants have denied the charges against them.

Gaessy Gros, one of the lawyers representing the victim, said the decision “sends a very strong signal to the men of this country, to the world of rugby and to women”.

“Ladies, you can dress however you want, drink as much as you want, freedom is priceless,” he said.

The trial took place behind closed doors, in the absence of the media and the public, at the request of the plaintiff’s lawyers.

Coulson joined Grenoble in 2014 and played for the team until 2017.

Farrell also joined Grenoble in 2014 and played there until 2017. He has also played 15 times for Ireland, including at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

The trial, held in Bordeaux, southwest France, was originally scheduled for June but was delayed after Coulson was seriously injured in a road accident.

The victim reported seeing two naked men in the room and others fully clothed.

Coulson, Jammes and Grice said they had sex with V., but claimed the encounter was consensual and that the student was proactive in carrying it out.

Farrell, owner of the crutch, was present, as was Hayes.

“Maybe this girl didn’t want what happened to happen, but her behavior didn’t suggest to these boys, at least to my client, that she didn’t agree.” , declared Dreyfus-Schmidt at the opening of the file.

“When we go to nightclubs and drink a lot, it is not to exchange sweet words but to have relationships with boys,” explained the lawyer.

“She was very active. She kissed him (Coulson) in the club, gave him oral sex in the taxi and signaled to him that she was up for it.

V.’s lawyer, Anne Cadiot-Feidt, rejected this argument, saying that the players had behaved “like thugs”.

A toxicology report indicated the victim’s blood alcohol level was between 2.2 and 3 grams, a level considered to be in the danger zone for alcohol poisoning.

CCTV footage showed her having difficulty getting up when she arrived at the hotel and being supported by a player.

Cadiot-Feidt rejected the players’ version of events, saying of his client: “You can’t expect anyone to be perfect all the time.”

Although the decision to drink as much as she did was her client’s, it didn’t give anyone permission “to do whatever they wanted with their body,” she said.

Players, she said, have a duty to “protect” the woman.

“You don’t have to be a superhero, but you can call a taxi without exploiting, or allowing others to exploit, the weak state she was in,” said the lawyer.

The three main defendants left Grenoble in 2017 after the accusations were revealed, to pursue their careers in other clubs.

Coulson’s lawyer, Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, said Wednesday that her client had apologized to the victim and his teammates “because he feels responsible since it was he who drove the young woman into the piece”.

Rape accusations have recently shaken the world of international rugby.

An Argentine court on Tuesday dismissed rape charges against two French rugby internationals accused of assaulting a woman after playing a match in the country in July.

Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, both 21, were detained for weeks in Argentina after the alleged July assault.

A 39-year-old woman, whom they met in a nightclub, accused them of a violent attack in a hotel room.

A judge in Mendoza dismissed the case on the advice of the prosecutor’s office, which requested that the charges be dropped due to inconsistencies in the woman’s version of events. His lawyer also plans to appeal.