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Man City’s Defender Benjamin Mendy faces retrial for sex offences
Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy will face a retrial for s*x offences after a jury was unable to reach a verdict.
Recall that, Benjamin Mendy, 28-year-old was charged with seven counts of rape and one count of sexual assault against six women which took place between October 2016 and August 2021.
A jury at Chester Crown Court deliberated for 14 hours and 36 minutes before being discharged on Monday. Mendy, who was released on bail, will now face a retrial at a date to be determined.
He has denied all the charges against him.
Jurors in his last trial, which ended in January, failed to reach verdicts on the two charges involving two different women.
The panel of seven men and four women had cleared the defender of six other counts of rape and one of sexual assault against four women following a six-month trial.
The judge in January had immediately set a new trial date of Monday for the two counts on which the jury did not return a verdict.
Mendy’s lawyer, Priya Gopaldas, QC, said her client was “obviously disappointed” with the outcome of the trial.
“He has always maintained his innocence and will continue to do so,” she said.
Manchester City suspended Benjamin Mendy in August 2021 after the charges were first brought against him. He has not played for the club since.
Mendy was accused alongside Louis Saha Matturie, 41, an alleged “fixer”, who was found not guilty by the jury of three counts of rape relating to two teenagers.
Jurors also failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault against Matturie by five other women.
He faces a separate retrial later this year.
The prosecution had alleged that Mendy was a sexual “predator” who raped or sexually assaulted young women procured by Matturie at parties at his luxury home south of Manchester.
Benjamin Mendy denied ever forcing any woman into sex and both said any sexual activity they had with women was consensual.