Ex-Ireland rugby player Denis Coulson will go before a French court along with two other men to face charges over the alleged gang rape of a woman filmed with a mobile phone.
The former Leinster and Connacht prop, 25, who denies the accusation, will appear in a Bordeaux court with New Zealander Rory Grice, 29, and Frenchman Loick Jammes, 24, over the alleged incident on March 12, 2017.
The trio, who all played for Grenoble at the time, are accused of attacking a 21-year-old woman in a hotel after meeting her at a nightclub in Bordeaux following their Top 14 defeat by Bordeaux-Begles on March 11.
Dubliner Coulson could face a charge carrying a penalty of up to 20 years for gang rape under French law.
All three men strongly deny the accusations and insist the encounter was consensual.
The alleged victim told cops she met them in a club and went back to their hotel near Bordeaux where the alleged offence took place.
Prosecutors declared: “The theory aired during the investigative process of a sexual orgy freely consented to with three men cannot be reasonably accepted, given that these sexual incidents were immediately followed by a psychological collapse of the young woman, with tears, suffocation, shivering and disorientation.”
The Irish Times previously reported that during a ‘confrontation’ between the alleged victim and the players in June 2018, she told them: “I would like them to understand, and for all guys to understand, that when a girl is sleeping you don’t stick objects inside her and you don’t have sex with her. Just because I smiled at you in the course of the evening didn’t mean I wanted it.”
A French lawyer for Coulson, who plays for second division French side Carcassonne, has labelled the investigation “completely biased”.
Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt said: “The words alone of a complainant are not sufficient to send this before a criminal court, especially since they are contradicted by some witness testimonies.”
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