San Francisco Frontiers - French jury upholds jail terms for three rugby players over gang rape

Irishman Denis Coulson, 31, and Frenchman Loick Jammes, 31, had been sentenced to 14 years behind bars, and New Zealander Rory Grice, 36, to 12 years in jail.

The jail terms were handed down after a trial in the French city of Bordeaux in late 2024 over the rape of a 20-year-old student during a drunken night out in 2017.

"You are sentenced to the same penalty as in the first instance," said the presiding judge in Angouleme, southwestern France, adding that there was an "absence of significant evolution compared to the previous decision".

There were emotional scenes as the verdict was read as the three defendants, former players with Grenoble rugby club, remained motionless in the dock before speaking with their lawyers and relatives, some of whom were in tears.

The victim was not present in court.

In the early hours of March 12, 2017, the student, identified only as V., was in tears as she left a hotel on the outskirts of Bordeaux, where the Grenoble team spent the night after losing a Top 14 game against local side Bordeaux-Begles.

V. filed a complaint with police, saying she had met the players in a bar together with two friends and accompanied them to a nightclub where all of them drank heavily.

The student said she had no recollection of how she got from the club to the hotel where she woke up, naked on a bed and with a crutch inserted in her vagina.

She saw two naked men in the room and others fully dressed.

Coulson, Jammes and Grice stated they had sexual relations with V. but claimed the encounter was consensual and the student had been pro-active in bringing it about.

The lawyers for the three said they will appeal to the Court of Cassation, the highest court in the French judicial system.

Coulson's lawyer said they were stunned by a "repetition of an excessive and disproportionate punishment".

Jammes's lawyer Denis Dreyfus said they had been punished for not having confessed.

"If this is how the appeals process is conceived, it's frightening," he said.

During the proceedings, as in the original trial, the defendants maintained that the act was consensual, relying on a video filmed by one of them.

The victim's lawyer said they were relieved and described the ordeal as "a terrible journey, marked by repeated setbacks".

Two other teammates, who witnessed the scene without intervening, Irishman Chris Farrell and New Zealander Dylan Hayes, did not appeal their convictions.

Farrell had been sentenced to four years in prison, two of which were suspended, and Hayes received a two-year suspended term.

K.Gray--SFF