The world champion defender, in pre-trial detention since August 2021, was released on bail this Friday afternoon. His trial, originally scheduled for January 24, is scheduled to take place on June 27 or August 1.
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 decided during a hearing at Crown Court in Chester (north-west of England) to release the 27-year-old, world champion in 2018, who had been in pre-trial detention since the end of August. His trial, originally scheduled for January 24, is scheduled to take place on June 27 or August 1.
The maximum penalty he faces, if he pleads not guilty, is life imprisonment. If this sentence remains unlikely, a conviction would however earn him several years behind bars and an immediate end of his career.
Faced with seven counts of rape and one of sexual assault
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 had 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. These first events are said to have taken place at his home in Prestbury, Cheshire.
On his arrival at City, Mendy was nevertheless seen as one of the great French and world hopes at the left-back position. Trained in Le Havre, revealed in Marseille and spent a season with Monaco, Mendy had become the most expensive defender in history when the Citizens had not hesitated to pay 52 million pounds (around 61 million euros) for s ‘attach its services, in 2017.
Benjamin Mendy is already known to British justice. In the fall of 2020, his Lamborghini, worth more than 500,000 euros, was seized, sparking the mocking headlines of the English tabloids. And for good reason, the player had neither license nor insurance to drive it. He then pleaded guilty and was fined just over 1,000 euros.
Update : Friday January 7 at 4:20 p.m., reminder of the charges