As the jury delivered its verdict, count after count, Benjamin Mendy covered his face with his hands. Five months into his trial, nearly a year and a half into the investigation, the French footballer, 28, was found not guilty of six charges of rape and one of sexual assault on Friday January 13, at the Chester court, near Manchester (Great Britain). The members of the jury, however, failed to agree on two other charges, rape and attempted rape. These two facts will be retried from June 26, in a new trial scheduled to last two to three weeks.
‘Mr Mendy is delighted to have been found unanimously not guilty on eight of the ten charges he faced and is eager to clear his name on the other two charges so that he can rebuild his life’said Jenny Wiltshire, his lawyer.
Former 2018 world champion, during a tournament in Russia where he remained on the bench of substitutes, Benjamin Mendy saw his career suddenly interrupted in August 2021. The police had just indicted him for four rapes and a sexual assault . His club had suspended him in stride.
These first indictments then snowballed. Several new women had filed a complaint against him. In total, Benjamin Mendy had been indicted ten times, for eight rapes, an attempted rape and a sexual assault against seven different women, between 2018 and 2021.
Nightclub VIP areas
To listen to the prosecutor during the trial, the footballer was a “predator” who had set up a system of attracting young women to his home. The tout, still according to the prosecution, was Louis Saha Matturie, 41, himself initially indicted for eight rapes and four sexual assaults against eight women. On Friday, the latter was found not guilty of three of these rapes, but the members of the jury failed to agree on three charges of rape and three sexual assaults.
A large part of the facts was not discussed. Mr. Mendy liked to party. Very often, with the help of Mr. Matturie, to whom he paid for a flat, he started the evening in the VIP squares of Manchester nightclubs, footing the bill for all. Then he brought young women back to his luxurious villa in the greater Manchester suburbs. The average age of the complainants at the time of the events was just under 21 years old.
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