The trial in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, the scene of the alleged rape by then members of the Grenoble team after a rugby match, had been set to open Monday after a seven-year wait.
But the court ordered it take place instead from December 2 to 13 after one of the main defendants, Irishman Denis Coulson, was unable to attend after a traffic accident last Wednesday.”He had a very serious accident and is in hospital. We are not sure how the situation will evolve,” his lawyer Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt said.
One of the lawyers for the plaintiff, a woman who has chosen to identify herself only as V. and is now 27, said the postponement was disappointing but necessary.”To be honest we can’t do without Coulson. If he hadn’t done what he did, we wouldn’t be in court,” said the lawyer, Anne Cadiot-Feidt.
Former Grenoble players Coulson, 30, New Zealander Rory Grice, 34, and 29-year-old Frenchman Loick Jammes stand accused of rape.Two former teammates, 31-year-old Irishman Chris Farrell – a member of Ireland’s Grand Slam-winning 2018 Six Nations squad – and New Zealander Dylan Hayes, 30, are being tried for failing to prevent a crime.
Grice’s lawyer, Philip Fitzgerald, said his client had been waiting seven years to defend himself against the rape charge.”We’ll come back in December with the same determination to prove my client’s innocence,” he told AFP.
