At the closed-door trial of ex-rugby players from Grenoble accused of a gang rape, the victim gave her version of the night of the events in 2017 on Monday, between memories and “black-out”, her lawyers told AFP .
“She explained herself with sincerity and modesty. She had the emotion that you can imagine but she was very dignified,” underlined Me Gaessy Gros. “She said the same thing she always said, right from the start. »
The young woman, who was 20 at the time, said she was raped while she was in a daze after a very alcoholic evening, which followed a Top 14 match between Grenoble and Bordeaux-Bègles. The defendants, the Irishman Denis Coulson, the Frenchman Loïck Jammes and the New Zealander Rory Grice, recognize the sexual relations but plead consent.
The Irishman Chris Farrell and the New Zealander Dylan Hayes appear for failure to prevent a crime for having witnessed the scene, without intervening, in a hotel room in Mérignac.
“She came back to this evening, the memories she had of it, which are quite few. The blackout begins when you leave the disco,” continued Me Gros.
“There is no question of thinking that this young woman is lying”
The victim, who had met the players in a bar and followed them to a nightclub, alcohol flowing freely, claims to have come to her senses naked on a hotel bed, with a crutch in her vagina, surrounded by two naked men and others dressed.
“For us, there is absolutely no question of thinking that this young woman is lying. She has a trauma, she wakes up, she finds herself in a hotel room with rugby players, naked. We understand that she is in a panic situation,” declared Me Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, lawyer for Denis Coulson.
“But the problem is not what she feels, it’s what the boys thought of her behavior,” she adds, referring to a video filmed by her client during a sexual act. According to her, the young woman appears “active, she’s not a weakling, she’s not in an alcoholic coma. Her behavior suggests that she was consenting and participatory. »