French rape trial adjourned over Irish rugby player’s involvement in ‘extremely serious road accident’

The criminal trial of five rugby players accused of gang raping a student was adjourned on Monday following a serious road accident involving Irish defendant Denis Coulson.

The 30-year-old Dubliner, who represented his country in the U20 national team, was due to appear before the assize court in Bordeaux in southwest France on Monday afternoon. He is said to have been involved, along with Frenchman Loick Jammes (29) and New Zealander Rory Grice (34), in the sexual assault on the alleged victim, who was 21 years old at the time of the incident.

Meanwhile, Chris Farrell, 31, winner of the Six Nations Championship with Ireland, is accused, along with Dylan Hayes, 30, of New Zealand, of “failing to prevent the crime”. However, at the start of the trial, judges were told that Coulson was seriously injured in a car crash last Wednesday, June 12.

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His lawyer Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt said in court: “He had an extremely serious traffic accident and is currently in hospital. We do not yet know how the situation will develop.”

Anne Cadiot-Feidt, who represents the alleged victim – whose name cannot be disclosed for legal reasons – said: “Our client is not at all happy with this postponement, but we have to accept what has happened. To be completely honest, we cannot do without Coulson.”

All five defendants were teammates at FC Grenoble in eastern France when the alleged crime occurred on March 12, 2017, in a hotel in Merignac, a suburb of Bordeaux where the city’s airport is located. The defendants deny any wrongdoing and claim the woman in question had sex with three of them, despite all of them being extremely drunk.

She is said to have met the players in a bar after her team had played a match against Union Bordeaux-Bègles. She then accompanied the five men to a disco in Bordeaux, where they all drank heavily, according to evidence previously heard in court.

The woman then went to her hotel with the Grenoble players at around 4am, where the party was captured on video. The spectators appeared very drunk and could barely stand. Coulson is said to have recorded a video on his mobile phone showing the woman engaging in sexual acts, French prosecutors claim.

She later told a taxi driver: “I was raped. There were several,” before filing a complaint with the Bordeaux police a few hours later.

Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, Denis Coulson’s lawyer, said before the court: “This is not a trial of rugby players who are rapists, it is a trial of alcohol. All these young people who drink until they get into an impossible state – that is the problem in this case.”

All five players continued their professional careers after their arrest and were released on bail, but two of them – Coulson and Hayes – have since retired. Their trial was due to last 10 days and has now been adjourned to a date to be determined.

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