According to testimony given in court, Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy told the woman he is accused of raping that he had slept with 10,000 women.
Mendy, 28, is in court for a retrial after the jury in his first rape trial was unable to decide on two accusations. He is accused of raping a lady in October 2020 at his £4 million Cheshire property when she was 24 years old. Additionally, he is charged with attempting to rape a different woman, who was 29 at the time, two years prior. The club is about to let Mendy go, and he disputes both charges.
Judge Stephen Everett has informed the Chester Crown Court jury that Mendy, a French international football player, was found not guilty of the sexual offences claimed by other women following a trial that concluded in January of this year.
In January, Mendy was found not guilty of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault against four women. Mendy had to go through a new trial because the jury was deadlocked on the verdicts for one count of rape and one count of attempted rape against two additional claimed victims.
The judge cautioned them to base their decisions solely on the facts presented in the current trial and not on the specifics of the previous trial or media coverage. “Benjamin Mendy is a football player who was under contract to Manchester City FC,” Benjamin Aina KC said when introducing the case to the jury.
At his house, The Spinney, in Mottram St. Andrew, Cheshire, he would host social events and parties. “He would have both male and female guests at his social gatherings. It is the prosecution case that on two occasions Mr Mendy took advantage of two of his female guests.
“On one occasion he tried to have forced sex with a female guest, woman A. “On another occasion he raped a female guest in one of his bedrooms, woman B.”
Mr Aina said Mendy first met woman A, a UK student, while in a nightclub in Barcelona in late 2017 and she became intimate with one of his friends.
They kept in touch and a year later she arranged to visit Mendy’s friend at the footballer’s house, where they stayed after they all went with other girls for a night-out. Mendy showed up unannounced the following morning as she took a shower in the en-suite bathroom, only wearing boxer shorts and holding himself, the court heard. He was “aroused” at the incident.
The victim allegedly told Mendy numerous times to stop before he allegedly grabbed her and attempted to rape her on the bed as she struggled to get away.
Women B were asked back to the footballer’s home two years later while they were out with friends at a bar in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, not far from Mendy’s residence. She claims that after taking her phone, which she said contained “intimate” images, Mendy brought her to his locked bedroom as she begged for her phone back.
Mr Aina said Mendy told her “I just wanna have a look at you” and told her to take her clothes off.
Woman B complied, leaving her underwear on, and Mendy then threw her phone on the bed.
As she went to retrieve it, Mendy is alleged to have taken hold of her from behind and raped her despite her telling him she did not want to have sex.
Mr Aina told the jury: “At this stage Mr Mendy took a step back and said ‘you’re too shy’.
“Mr Mendy said, ‘It’s fine. I’ve had sex with 10,000 women’.”
Mendy told police on both occasions any sexual contact was consensual and denies any wrongdoing.
The trial continues.
