{"id":380255,"date":"2026-04-03T16:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/380255\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T16:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:43:09","slug":"french-jury-asked-to-uphold-14-year-rape-sentence-for-irish-former-rugby-player-denis-coulson-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/380255\/","title":{"rendered":"French jury asked to uphold 14-year rape sentence for Irish former rugby player Denis Coulson \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A senior French<\/a> prosecutor has asked a jury to uphold a 14-year prison sentence for Irish former rugby player Denis Coulson, and increase the sentence of one of his co-accused, in the closing arguments of an appeal trial against their convictions for raping a student in 2017.<\/p>\n

The jury is expected to deliver their verdict between Friday evening and Saturday morning at the court in Angoul\u00eame in southwestern France.<\/p>\n

In French courts, the advocate general or senior prosecutor recommends verdicts to juries and their assessment of the correct penalty carries weight, though juries can choose to deviate from it in their final decision.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Philippe Vique asked the jury to reconfirm a 14-year sentence for Coulson and a 14-year sentence for Frenchman Lo\u00efck Jammes: the penalties each were given in the initial trial.<\/p>\n

Vique asked for New Zealander Rory Grice to be given a 14-year sentence, an increase from the 12 years he was given in the initial trial.<\/p>\n

Two other players who were given shorter sentences in the initial trial for failing to prevent a crime have not appealed.<\/p>\n

The trial has been heard behind closed doors at the request of the victim, who testified before the court earlier this week. She has availed of her right to anonymity.<\/p>\n

Coulson apologised to the victim during the appeal hearings, according to his lawyer Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has realised that at the time his judgment of the situation wasn\u2019t accurate, due to the excitement of the evening and his heavy drinking,\u201d Dreyfus-Schmidt said, adding that her client had had a chance to \u201creflect\u201d in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe apologised … saying he never imagined it could cause this young woman so much suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

All players for FC Grenoble, the men were staying at a hotel on the outskirts of the French city of Bordeaux where they had travelled for a Top 14 championship match against local side Bordeaux B\u00e8gles.<\/p>\n

After their side lost the match, the five went out to a bar in the town where they met a group of students from Sciences Po university, including the then-20-year-old victim and her friends.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for both sides agree that they all went on to a nightclub together and had consumed a lot of alcohol by the time CCTV footage captured the victim, propped up by Coulson, arriving back at the team\u2019s hotel by taxi.<\/p>\n

A later video shown to the court showed the victim being penetrated by objects. In the initial trial, defence lawyers argued that the video showed the victim was a willing participant.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the victim say she was in blackout state, and emerged from it due to the pain of being penetrated by a metal object, and that she then fled the room and collapsed in front of the hotel receptionist. <\/p>\n

She made a police report that morning, telling investigators she had no memory of the night from the nightclub onwards.<\/p>\n

A toxicology report showed that the victim\u2019s alcohol level was between 2.2g and 3g , in the danger zone for alcohol poisoning.<\/p>\n

During the appeal process, which began last week, the court reheard much of the case. <\/p>\n

Numerous witnesses testified, including other players and the Irish former rugby player Bernard Jackman, who was FC Grenoble coach at the time and appeared by video-link from Dublin to explain the logistics of team travel and why the players were staying at the hotel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A senior French prosecutor has asked a jury to uphold a 14-year prison sentence for Irish former rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1814,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-380255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-france","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}