In a high-profile ruling delivered Saturday in southwestern France, an appeals court has reaffirmed the rape convictions and original prison sentences for three former professional Grenoble rugby players, rejecting their legal challenge to a 2024 guilty verdict.
Irish athlete Denis Coulson and French player Loïck Jammes will continue to serve 14-year prison terms, while New Zealand-born Rory Grice remains sentenced to 12 years behind bars, matching the sentences handed down in the first trial last December. All three men have been incarcerated since the original conviction.
The case dates back to March 2017, shortly after Grenoble played a competitive match in Bordeaux. The 20-year-old student victim filed a formal complaint alleging that she met the three players during a night of heavy drinking, before being assaulted in a local hotel on Bordeaux’s outskirts. The defendants have consistently maintained that any sexual encounter was fully consensual, a claim that was rejected by both the original trial court and the appeals court.
Presiding judge Marie-Dominique Boulard-Paoloni told the court, as quoted by French sports daily L’Equipe, that the jury and judicial panel reached the same conclusion as the lower court after weighing the severity of the documented offenses. “We also considered the absence of any notable change compared to the previous decision,” she added, informing the defendants that they have a 10-day window to file a further appeal with France’s Court of Cassation, the country’s highest judicial body for criminal matters.
Following the ruling, legal representatives for the three convicted former players confirmed they intend to proceed with that final appeal to France’s top court.