Two other former Isérois players, Chris Farrell and Dylan Hayes, suspected of having witnessed scenes and not having done anything to end them, also took over the jurisdiction. Indicted in 2021 for “non-prevention of crime”, they had appealed. The investigation chamber considered that there were sufficient charges against him and ordered his indictment before the Gironde courts for this related offence.
“It is a very positive decision, which we expected. The trial is highly motivated”, reacts M.me Anne Cadiot-Feidt, the young woman’s lawyer. But it is a decision that will soon have to be attacked by the rugbiers’ lawyers.
Several of them announced their wish to appeal to the Court of Cassation (1). like meme Arnaud Lucien, defender of Dylan Hayes. “My client strongly denies that he witnessed a rape or, if the rape was admitted, had any knowledge of it. He will continue to fight to assert his innocence, ”he insists. “In this case, we have the impression that we are proceeding by simplification, without examining our arguments. The current climate is not conducive to listening to them,” says Ms.me Caroline Dreyfus-Schmidt, attorney for Denis Coulson.
very alcoholic
The affair broke out on March 12, 2017. Devastated, the student filed a complaint, stating that she had been raped by rugby players from Grenoble, at night, in her hotel, in Mérignac. The young woman met them in a bar in the center of Bordeaux where she had a drink with friends and where the players were relaxing after their game. The two groups sympathize, go to the disco. They all drink, dance, have fun. Around 4 am, the players return to their hotel. The student and one of her friends accompany them.
The investigation showed that the young woman was in a very advanced state of intoxication at that time. Experts value her blood alcohol level between 2 and 3 grams. When she arrived at the hotel, surveillance cameras filmed her, barely standing, Denis Coulson supporting her before leading her to her room. “She seemed dazed,” a security guard testified during the investigation.
Under such conditions, was the student capable of consenting to sexual intercourse? With several men, the use of objects, while being filmed, as revealed by investigations? From the outset, the complainant claims to have had no memory between the time she left the disco and the time she woke up, around 7 in the morning, naked in a room, surrounded by rugby players. Denis Coulson, Rory Grice and Loïck Jammes admitted to having sexual relations with her, consensual according to them.
(1) Contacted, not all defense attorneys responded.