Five rugby players from Grenoble appear in trial over gang rape of female students in France

Five former players of the leading French rugby team Grenoble will go on trial starting Monday. Three of them are accused of raping a student after a game in 2017.

The trial in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, the scene of the alleged rape, will focus on whether the woman, now 27, was too drunk to consent to sex.

“What is consent? At what point is it diminished or even completely absent?” one of her lawyers, Anne Cadiot-Feidt, told AFP.

The plaintiff, who is only named as V., has, according to her lawyers, chosen anonymity to protect her private and professional life.

30-year-old Irishman Denis Coulson, 34-year-old New Zealander Rory Grice and 29-year-old Frenchman Loick Jammes are accused of raping the plaintiff.

Two teammates, 31-year-old Irishman Chris Farrell – a member of Ireland’s Grand Slam-winning team at the 2018 Six Nations – and 30-year-old New Zealander Dylan Hayes, are on trial for failing to prevent crime.

V. and two friends met the rugby players in a bar in Bordeaux after the Grenoble team played a Top 14 championship match on March 11, 2017 – a few months before the #MeToo movement broke out in the United States.

The group drank cocktails, including mojitos and vodka-Red Bull, and then moved on to a nightclub.

V. said that after leaving the nightclub, she could not remember how the evening ended.

At around 4:00 a.m., she and Coulson got into a taxi to the players’ hotel.

A toxicological report showed that V. had between 2.2 and 3.0 grams of alcohol per litre of blood at the time – more than ten times the maximum permitted limit for drivers in France.

Surveillance footage of her arrival at the hotel shows her struggling to stay on her feet while Coulson supports her.

He also appears to prevent her from getting back into the taxi twice.

V. said she woke up around 7:00 a.m. naked on a bed with a crutch in her vagina, along with two naked men and others who were still clothed.

Attorney Cadiot-Feidt said the arguments in the case would likely focus on “the question of the victim’s responsibility in a situation where he or she has voluntarily placed himself or herself in a state that limits or revokes his or her consent.”

“We often ask questions about the victim’s consent and not at all about how attackers assess their consent,” she added.

Statements from the defendants and witnesses, as well as a video filmed by Coulson during a sexual act, suggest that the group had oral sex with V. and also penetrated her with objects, including crutches.

Coulson, Jammes and Grice have all admitted to having sex with V., but insist it was consensual.

Jammes’ lawyer Denis Dreyfus said he also expected the hearings to focus on how difficult it is to obtain the consent of those involved when “all parties are drunk.”

“What is certain is that it is a tragedy for both sides,” he added. “This is not a trial against rapist rugby players, it is a trial against alcohol,” said Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, who is representing Coulson.

The “climate” surrounding the #MeToo movement is “not conducive to understanding” in such cases, she added.

“The real problem in this case is all these young people who are drinking to excess,” said Dreyfus-Schmidt.

Cadiot-Feidt accused some French rugby clubs and fans of having a “high tolerance” for alcohol-related incidents.

“A lot of people still think the woman just shouldn’t have gone out, shouldn’t have had a drink, just shouldn’t have put herself in that situation,” she said.