Three rugby players charged with gang rape in France

Three players in France’s rugby league were charged with gang rape on Tuesday, one month after the victim filed the police report, Bordeaux prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Players of the FC Grenoble rugby team arrive at the police station on March 22, 2017 in Grenoble, France to be heard as part of an investigation for rape. AFP/Jean-Pierre Clatot

The Grenoble rugby club players – Irishman Denis Coulson, New Zealander Rory Grice and Frenchman Loïck Jammes, all in their twenties – have been placed under judicial supervision by the Bordeaux public prosecutor, who has also banned them from leaving the country until their trial begins. The players have been ordered not to contact the victim.

If convicted, the players – who have been suspended since last month – could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for gang rape.

Last month in March, a 21-year-old woman reported to police that she had been gang raped by the Grenoble players in Bordeaux, the night their club had lost an away match against Bordeaux’s team. The woman, who has said she was drugged, met the players in a nightclub before going back to their hotel room. The latter is where the alleged gang rape took place.

The three players were taken into police custody for questioning in Bordeaux on Tuesday, which led to them being officially charged later that evening. It was the second time the players had been in custody, after having been questioned by Grenoble police last month in March.

After the second round of questioning, Bordeaux prosecutors have concluded that there are “serious and consistent indications that suggest the players’ likely participation, whether as perpetrators or accomplices, in the reported offense,” as cited by French press agency AFP.

Bordeaux prosecutors have affirmed that digital, telephone and DNA evidence have been at the centre of the investigation.

Grenoble police had initially taken into custody six Grenoble club players for the first round of questioning, but let three of them go with no further charges.

The lawyer representing Frenchman Jammes, Bernard Boulloud, has said that the charges will allow him “to access the case file so as to construct a successful defence for the respective clients, who remain innocent until proven guilty”.

The Grenoble club initially suspended the players on 17 March, but lifted the suspension 12 days later.