Two Irishmen are among five rugby players who were sent to trial today over the alleged gang rape of a young woman in France.
Denis Coulson, 28 is said to have taken part in the 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 ‘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 said to have happened in a hotel in Merignac, a suburb of Bordeaux where the city airport is situated, on March 12, 2017.
Two Irishmen are among five rugby players who were sent to trial today over the alleged gang rape of a young woman in France. Irishmen Denis Coulson, 28, (pictured) is said to have taken part in the sex attack along with Frenchman Loick Jammes and New Zealander Rory Grice
Irishmen Chris Farrell, 29, (pictured) is accused of ‘failing to prevent the crime’, along with Dylan Hayes from New Zealand
Now the five have been given until September 29 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 gang rape face up to 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.
Frenchman Loick Jammes, 27, (left) and New Zealander Rory Grice, 32, (right) are also accused of participating in the gang rape of the 21-year-old woman. The rape is said to have happened in a hotel in Merignac, a suburb of Bordeaux where the city airport is situated, on March 12, 2017
Dylan Hayes, 28, from New Zealand, was accused of failing to ‘prevent the crime’
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.
Coulson is said to have recorded a video on his mobile telephone showing the woman performing sex acts, it is alleged by French prosecutors.
She later told a taxi driver ‘I was raped. There were several of them’, before filing a complaint to Bordeaux police a few hours later.
Denis Dreyfus, barrister for Loick Jammes, said the woman’s first statement to police described ‘consensual sex’.
But the Appeals Court decision ‘clearly establishes’ that ‘there could not have been consent,’ according to a spokesman for the woman’s defence team.
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