French police trawl CCTV for alleged rapists of Irish rugby fan

Gardaí patrol the perimeter of the stadium with a member of the Gendarmerie, French police, before the 2023 Rugby World Cup Pool B match between Ireland and Romania at Stade de Bordeaux in Bordeaux, France. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

A manhunt is under way in France after an Irish woman was allegedly gang-raped in Bordeaux, where she had travelled for Ireland’s Rugby World Cup opener.

CCTV images were being trawled last night as police searched for three men accused of raping the 37-year-old rugby fan who was in the city for the Ireland v Romania game on Saturday.

Biological evidence, taken from the alleged victim, has been preserved, French media reports.

The woman was near the apartment she was staying in when she was allegedly grabbed by three men, abducted, and dragged to another alley where she was raped around 12am on Sunday night. The alleged rapists were described as Caucasian, with one of extremely athletic build.

They are understood to have fled the scene following the alleged attack.

French media reports that the Irish woman was found by Welsh supporters, following the Welsh v Fiji rugby match on Sunday, who brought her back to the apartment she was staying in nearby.

Police were alerted and found her “traumatised” in the apartment.

She was taken to the University Hospital of Bordeaux and helped by a victim support organisation.

The Bordeaux prosecutor’s office confirmed to French media that an investigation is under way.

It is reported that the woman told police she was abducted in Rue de la Rousselle and brought to Rue du Puits Descazeaux, where the woman said she was attacked.

These streets are in the Victor Hugo neighbourhood of the old town of the south-western French city.

An Garda Síochána said some gardaí are already deployed in France for the duration of the Rugby World Cup tournament to assist Irish people visiting France for the tournament and that they are liaising with local authorities in relation to an alleged incident.

However, they said that the investigation is a matter for French police.

Irishman Brad Ellis, who is working in a bar in Bordeaux, said that he and his colleagues were shocked by the news.

On the night of the alleged attack, he had made sure a young woman sitting alone on the street found her group and got safely in a taxi with them.

“I’m really happy now I made sure she got into a taxi with everyone — that could have been another person on the list,” he said.

You have to be careful here.

“I have only been here two months, but my host family warned me to look out for their daughter, to make sure she did not walk home alone after 10pm because there are dodgy people around. The girls in work all have mace [self-defence spray] with them.”

Mr Ellis, who works near to where the rape took place, said that the area is lively, and is quite busy late into the night.

“It’s always a shock when something like this happens,” he said. "It’s someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s mother."