Ex-Manchester City star Benjamin Mendy denies sex attacks on women

Ex-Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has denied sexually attacking two women.

The 28-year-old says two incidents with women who accuse him of abuse were both consensual encounters, Chester Crown Court has been told.

The French international, who was under contract to Manchester City until 1 July, is accused of the attempted rape of woman A, aged 29 at the time, at his £4 million mansion in Mottram St Andrew, Cheshire, in October 2018.

He is also accused of raping woman B, aged 24 at the time, at his home two years later.

Mendy denies both offences.

The footballer 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, the jury was told.

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 in October 2018.

During the night, while clubbing, Mendy told her he would “kidnap” her from his friend but he told the jury it just a “joke” as they had been flirting with each other.

The next morning, he said he went to her bedroom, where she was showering, and the two began hugging on the bed.

She alleges Mendy appeared in the room “aroused” and tried to rape her on the bed before she struggled free.

Mendy told the jury: “I asked her if we (are) OK to have sex. She told me, ‘No’ because of my friend.

“I was like, ‘It’s fine, my friend says it’s OK, so if you want, he’s OK with that.

“It’s when she started to be like that – upset, sad. I just left the room.”

Two years later, woman B was out with friends at a bar in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, near Mendy’s home, when they were invited back to the footballer’s house.

She alleges Mendy took her phone from her, which contained “intimate” photos, then led her to his locked bedroom as she asked for her phone back.

Woman B told the jury he threw her phone on his bed and when she went to retrieve it he got behind her and raped her despite her telling him she did not want to have sex.

Mendy told the jury the two had a consensual sexual encounter and later swapped details on Snapchat.

Eleanor Laws KC, defending, asked the defendant: “Did you hold her down or force her on to the bed or penetrate her?”

Mendy said: “No.”

Under cross-examination, Benjamin Aina KC, prosecuting, asked Mendy: “You were not used to women saying no.

Mendy said: “Of course I was.”

Mr Aina said: “You wanted women who came to your house to party, get drunk and have sex?”

Mendy said: “If they want.”

He added: “I will never force to have sex with a woman.”

The jury of six women and six men have been told by trial Judge Stephen Everett, the Recorder of Chester, that the footballer was found not guilty of sexual offences alleged by other women after a trial which ended in January.

But that jury could not agree verdicts on the allegations made by women A and B, hence the retrial, which continues.