Trial of ex-Grenoble rugby players over rape claims delayed in France

Rory Grice playing for the New Zealand Sevens team in 2011. Photo / Photosport

A trial of five rugby players, including two Kiwis, over rape allegations has been postponed in a French court until December after one of the defendants was in a serious car crash.

Former Grenoble players Irishman Denis Coulson, 30, New Zealander Rory Grice, 34, and Frenchman Loick Jammes, 29, are accused of rape, AFP reported.

Two former teammates, Irishman Chris Farrell, 31 – a member of Ireland’s Grand Slam-winning 2018 Six Nations squad – and New Zealander Dylan Hayes, 30, are accused of failing to prevent a crime.

The alleged incident has been described as taking place after the woman met the players at a nightclub in Bordeaux following Grenoble’s Top 14 match against Bordeaux-Begles on Saturday, March 11, 2017.

According to reports at the time, the woman claimed she was drugged and raped by three players while two others failed to intervene. French prosecutors allege Coulson recorded a video on his cellphone showing the woman performing sex acts.

The accused denied any wrongdoing and the trial was set to start on Monday (local time) after a seven-year wait but Coulson’s lawyer told the court his client had been involved in a “very serious” crash and that he was still in hospital.

“We’ll come back in December with the same determination to prove my client’s innocence,” he told AFP.

The trial cannot proceed without Coulson, according to the lawyer for the plaintiff, who is a 27-year-old woman known only as V.

“To be honest we can’t do without Coulson. If he hadn’t done what he did, we wouldn’t be in court,” said the lawyer, Anne Cadiot-Feidt.

The court postponed the trial until December 2.

The three men charged with rape face up to 20 years in prison, while the maximum punishment for failing to prevent a crime is five years.

In September 2022, their case was referred to the Assises Court of Gironde. The players subsequently appealed that decision to the Bordeaux Court of Appeal which upheld the referral of the case to the Assises Court, which is a criminal trial court.