Messages between footballer Benjamin Mendy and 'fixer' revealed for first time

Messages between ex-Premier League footballer Benjamin Mendy and his "fixer" describing woman as "b****es", have been revealed for the first time.

The messages, exchanged between Mr Mendy and his friend Louis Saha Matturie, included one saying: "We are boss, they are b****es."

A second message read: "Bro' if no one f***, the girls they go, because they can't sleep here, no space."

Another message read: "I don't want any friends coming in (the cinema room). I'm going to f*** the tall one. Get the Spanish girl LOL."

The messages were recovered during a police investigation after both were accused of sexual offences by a number of girls.

After a six-month trial at Chester Crown Court in February, Mr Mendy was found not guilty of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, relating to four women.

Jurors could not reach verdicts on one count of rape, and one of attempted rape, relating to two women, but he was also found not guilty after a retrial in June.

None of the messages were shown to the jury at his trial or retrial after a judge ruled them inadmissible.

The messages could not be revealed until 26 October, when Mr Matturie was also cleared of all charges in his retrial.

Mr Matturie was found not guilty of three counts of rape relating to two teenagers at the first trial, he went on retrial for the charges jurors could not agree a verdict on.

At his retrial he was cleared of two counts of rape and one of sexual assault, relating to three different women.

The jurors failed to reach a verdict on one count of sexual assault, the Crown Prosecution Service on Thursday decided not to pursue a retrial.

Timothy Cray KC, prosecuting Mr Mendy in his first trial, applied for them to be included in the evidence as he disputed the messages highlighted their "entrenched" and "reckless" attitudes towards women.

However Eleanor Laws KC, defending Mr Mendy, argued against the messages being presented to the jury.

She believed many messages did not involve any of the women involved in the case, or that they showcased that the defendants were careless to women's consent to sex.

She said: "There's not a single message that shows he did not care whether women were consenting.

"All of this would be highly prejudicial."

Judge Steven Everett ruled the messages should not be involved in the trial, but he believed all "right thinking" people would disapprove of the messages.

He said: "A lot of the issues in this case are not whether they had entrenched views about sex but whether they had consent."

Mr Mendy has maintained his innocence throughout, and said while he was promiscuous, he would never pursue any sexual activity without consent.

In 2017, Mr Mendy joined Manchester City in a £52,000,000 defender world-record fee at the time, he now plays for French club FC Lorient.