Two Irish rugby players have been convicted in connection with the gang rape of a woman, who was assaulted in southwestern France in March 2017.
Denis Coulson, a former Ireland U20 international from Dublin, was sentenced to 14 years in prison after being found guilty of raping the then 20-year-old student in a hotel room in Mérignac, on the outskirts of Bordeaux.
Co Fermanagh-born Chris Farrell, a member of Ireland’s 2018 Grand Slam winning squad, was given a four-year sentence, with two years suspended, after being convicted of failing to prevent a crime. He will not be sent to prison, but will have to wear an electronic tag for two years.
The two men were on trial with three others, two of whom were also convicted of gang rape. They are French man Loïck Jammes (30) and New Zealander Rory Grice, aged 34. Both men still play professional rugby in France.
All five were teammates at FC Grenoble at the time of the assault.
Jammes was also sentenced to 14 years, while Grice received a jail term of 12 years.
Another New Zealand man, Dylan Hayes, who retired from professional rugby earlier this year, was given a two-year suspended sentence after being found guilty of failing to prevent a crime.
The jury, made up of three judges and six members of the public, delivered the verdicts and sentences on Friday evening after deliberating for almost nine hours.
Judge Marie-Noëlle Billaud, president of the Cour d’Assises of the Gironde region, had excluded the media from proceedings at the outset of the trial, at the victim’s request.
In the absence of journalists, the court was told that the woman met the defendants while out socialising with two friends in a bar in Bordeaux on March 11th, 2017.
She went on to a nightclub with them, and later back to their hotel in Mérignac. She said she and the players, who had just lost a Top 14 championship match to local side Bordeaux Bègles, had all been drinking heavily.
The student later told police that she had no recollection of getting from the nightclub to the hotel, and could not remember anything that happened in the room. In CCTV footage shown to the jury, she appeared to be having difficulty walking and was being propped up by Coulson after the pair were dropped off by a taxi at the hotel.
The three men convicted of rape told investigators that they had sexual relations with the victim, but claimed that the encounter was consensual.
During the trial, a 55-second video filmed by Coulson was shown to the court. Lawyers for the defendants insisted that it showed that the woman was a willing participant, and had consented to sex.
A toxicology report later stated that the woman’s blood alcohol level was between 2.2 and 3 grammes, a level considered in the danger zone for alcohol poisoning. Her lawyers argued that she was unable to consent to sex because she was intoxicated, and claimed that the players had a duty to “protect” her and should not have “exploited” her.
The student told police she regained consciousness early the following morning. She said she was lying naked on a bed. She said there were two naked men in the room, and others who were fully dressed.
Her lawyers told the court she had left the hotel in tears, and filed a complaint to police later that morning. A psychiatric expert gave evidence to the trial that the woman would likely have been on “automatic pilot” during the rape.
Coulson was badly injured in a car crash in the Dublin Port Tunnel just five days before the trial was originally scheduled to begin last June. This led to the proceedings being adjourned to this month to allow him to receive medical treatment.
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