The French international defender of Manchester City Benjamin Mendy, accused of seven rapes and a sexual assault, was released and placed under judicial supervision Friday by the British justice. Judge Patrick Thompson ruled during a hearing at Crown Court in Chester (north-west England) to release the 2018 world champion, who had been in pre-trial detention since the end of August.
A release from prison pending trial
The 27-year-old will therefore be able to get out of Manchester prison where he was recently transferred, pending trial, postponed to the summer (June 27 or August 1) after being initially scheduled for January 24. However, another preliminary hearing was held on that date, where his release will be reviewed. The French international is targeted by seven counts of rape on four women and one count of sexual assault on a fifth, for facts which would extend between October 2020 and August 2021.
The case started at the end of August when the Manchester City club announced the player’s suspension without further explanation. English justice then quickly announced that the player had been remanded in custody after being accused of four rapes – including one committed a few days earlier, while on parole – and sexual assault, by three women including a minor.
Life imprisonment if he pleads not guilty
These first events are said to have taken place at his home in Prestbury, Cheshire. Trained in Le Havre, revealed in Marseille and spent a season with Monaco, Mendy had become the most expensive defender in history in 2017 when the Citizens had spent 52 million pounds (about 60 million euros) to tie up his services.
When he arrived at City, where he had a year and a half left on his contract, he was considered one of the great French and world hopes as left-back. But the career of the 27-year-old player has been hampered for four years by injuries, before being so by the facts with which he is accused. The maximum penalty he incurs, if he pleads not guilty, is life imprisonment.