Two Irishmen are among five rugby players who were today sent to trial over the alleged gang rape of a young woman in France.
Denis Coulson, 28 is alleged to have taken part in the alleged sex attack along with Frenchman Loick Jammes, 27, and New Zealander Rory Grice, 32, judicial sources said on Monday.
They were originally indicted in June 2019, and an appeal against that decision has now been rejected by the Appeals Court in Bordeaux, South West France. Chris Farrell, 29 and also Irish, is meanwhile accused of allegedly ‘failing to prevent the crime’, along with Dylan Hayes, 28, from New Zealand.
All five were teammates playing for FC Grenoble, in eastern France, when the gang rape is alleged to have happened in a hotel in Merignac, a suburb of Bordeaux where the city airport is situated, on March 12, 2017.
Now the five have been given until September 29 – this Thursday – to launch a second appeal to Cassation – France’s highest appeal court.
Their lawyers are expected to argue that due process has been violated, and that they would not get a fair trial.
The source said the Appeals Court found ‘sufficient evidence that Mr Farrell and Mr Hayes failed to prevent the crime committed in Bordeaux on March 12th, 2017 and ordered that they be charged and sent before the Assizes court’.
The three men charged with the alleged gang rape face up to a maximum 20 years in prison, while the maximum punishment for failing to prevent a crime is five years.
Coulson used to play for Connacht in Ireland, and ended his professional career at Carcassonne, in South West France, in 2020.
Farrell was playing for Munster when he was charged, but his career has been suspended while legal proceedings are active.
Their alleged victim was said to be a 21-year-old French student, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
She is said to have met the players in a pub after their team played a match against Union Bordeaux-Bègles.
She then accompanied the five men to a disco in Bordeaux where all were seen drinking heavily, according to court evidence.
The woman then accompanied the Grenoble players to their hotel at around 4am, where the party was caught on CCTV looking very drunk.
She later allegedly told a taxi driver ‘I was raped. There were several of them’, before filling a complaint to Bordeaux police a few hours later.
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