The China Mail - French prosecutors seek up to 14 years in jail for rugby players in rape trial

Prosecutors requested 14 years behind bars for Irishman Denis Coulson, 30, and Frenchman Loick Jammes, 30, and 12 years for New Zealander Rory Grice, 34.

They sought four years in jail for ex-Ireland international 31-year-old Chris Farrell and two years, including one suspended, for New Zealander Dylan Hayes, 30, over failure to prevent the alleged rape.

The verdict is expected on Friday.

In the small 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 encounter 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.

Farrell, owner of the crutch, was present, as was Hayes.

- 'It's vile' -

The victim's lawyer Anne Cadiot-Feidt said it had been "unbearable" during the trial to hear the defendants describe her client as "a trollop -- if I'm being polite -- an eager party who used them and even exhausted them".

"It's vile, it's disgusting, it's obscene and that is perhaps also why the sentencing requests are what they are," she said.

Gaessy Gros, another lawyer for the victim, said those accused had "missed their chance" by continuing to deny rape and remaining united like a team on the rugby pitch.

Valerie Coriatt, who is defending Grice, however described the requested sentences as "almost indecent" for defendants who, she said, "are not a danger to society".

On the basis of statements from the accused and witnesses, as well as a sextape shot by Coulson, investigators have concluded there were several incidents of fellatio, and a banana, a bottle and crutches were inserted in V.'s vagina.

A toxicology report stated her blood alcohol level was between 2.2 and 3 grams, a level considered in the danger zone for alcohol poisoning.

CCTV footage showed her having difficulty standing up as she arrived at the hotel and being propped up by a player.

In court this week, Gros stressed that the victim had no recollection of what happened after leaving the night club.

A psychiatric expert said she would likely have been on "automatic pilot" during the alleged rape.

Gros has said V. was "in no state to give her consent as these men who carried her, who were with her, know perfectly well."

- 'Asked for forgiveness' -

Coulson's lawyer, Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, earlier this week described the victim as "very active" and willing.

"If you see someone who is completely lifeless, in an alcohol coma, and you sexually abuse her, it's not the same thing as if you see a woman who is taking action, moaning and acting in a coordinated way. That's what they saw," she said.

On Wednesday, she said her client had apologised to the victim.

"He asked her for forgiveness and he asked his teammates too because he feels responsible in as much as it was him who led the young woman into the room," she said.

Denis Dreyfus, who is defending Jammes, said there was not "the slightest ambiguity" on the plaintiff's attitude.

Arnaud Lucien, who represents Dylan Hayes, said the jail terms requested were "very high", saying there had not been enough of a distinction between the behaviour of each person in the case.

S.Wilson--ThChM