MENDY. Footballer Benjamin Mendy is accused of eight rapes, one attempted rape and sexual assault by seven different women. The first complainants were heard on Wednesday August 17 and Thursday August 18.
[Mis à jour le 19 août 2022 à 14h21] A second complainant testified on Thursday, August 18, 2022, in the trial against Benjamin Mendy, who is accused of eight rapes. The woman described three rapes that occurred at a party in October 2020. She claims the footballer confiscated her phone and then asked her to undress to return it to him. Locked in a room from which she could not leave, she was allegedly raped three times by Benjamin Mendy. The day before, Wednesday August 17, the video of the testimony of a first woman had been broadcast in court. In it, an alleged victim recounted having escaped an attempted rape. She described a day after a night out at the former Manchester player’s house when he tried to rape her after catching her in the bathroom.
As a reminder, the trial against footballer Benjamin Mendy has been open since August 10, 2022 at the court in Chester, England. The man is accused by seven women, including a minor, of eight rapes, attempted rape and sexual assault. He pleaded not guilty to all of these counts. The facts allegedly took place between October 2018 and August 2021 in his mansion, located forty-five minutes from Manchester, the club for which he played at the time. He appears alongside another man, Louis Saha Matturie. Close to Benjamin Mendy, he himself is accused of eight rapes and four sexual assaults. Both men face life imprisonment.
On August 15, 2022, prosecutor Timothy Cray revealed the details of the charges against the footballer and Louis Saha Matturie. He presented the two men as “predators ready to commit serious sexual abuse”, reports France news. Benjamin Mendy is charged with eight rapes, an attempted rape and a sexual assault by seven “vulnerable, terrified and isolated” women, in the words of the prosecutor. He detailed the role of Louis Saha Matturie, himself accused of eight rapes and four sexual assaults, who is described as a “beater”. Thus, he was responsible for “finding young women and creating situations where they could be raped and sexually assaulted”, continues the prosecutor.
The charges against Benjamin Mendy became known in August 2021. At the time, the footballer was accused of four rapes and a sexual assault by three people. Since then, seven complainants have come forward. The Manchester player was then placed in pre-trial detention and imprisoned in Altcourse prison, near Liverpool. Due to his notoriety and a high rate of assaults in this establishment, the footballer was transferred to Strangeways prison in December 2021. Released on bail in January 2022, Benjamin Mendy has since been subject to judicial review: his passport has been taken away from him and he must check in daily at the police station. Following the charges against Benjamin Mendy, the Manchester City club, in which he played, suspended him. The player still remains linked to the Mancunian group until 2023.
Most of the charges against Benjamin Mendy would have taken place in his mansion, in which the player organized parties. Upon arrival, some young women had their mobile phones confiscated, reports The Parisian. Some say they were locked up in a kind of “panic room”. These survival rooms are used by homeowners to take refuge in the event of burglary or intrusion. In an article from Guardian, it is explained that the two women who say they were raped in these rooms thought they were locked up. “You cannot enter from the outside, but you can open them from the inside if you know how to do it”, explains the prosecutor. However, the two women did not know how to get out of these survival rooms and only the footballer could do it.
On Wednesday August 17, 2022, a first complainant was heard. Her testimony was recorded by the police and then broadcast during the trial in order to preserve the woman’s anonymity and so that she did not have to go to court. For more than an hour and a half, she recounted an evening in October 2018 during which, after drinking games in a restaurant, Benjamin Mendy allegedly told her “when he turns his back, I will kidnap you”, reports The Parisian. The young woman first believes in a joke. She then went to the player’s home, where she fell asleep while drunk. When she wakes up, she explains how the football player would have entered the bathroom, while she was taking a shower and that he would not have come out, despite her repeated requests. After showing her his penis, preventing her from taking her underwear, he seated her on a bed in an attempt to rape her. “I didn’t understand what was going on,” she testifies, explaining that she did not shout, because she was flabbergasted. Confused, she manages to leave the mansion and sends a text message to a friend to inform her of what had just happened. The young woman filed a complaint in August 2021, after learning that Benjamin Mendy had been arrested for rape.
Thursday, August 18, a second complainant was heard in court. She accuses Benjamin Mendy of raping her three times at a party in October 2020. After meeting the footballer at a bar, she and her friends were invited to his mansion for a night out. Arriving there, the woman has her phone confiscated by the player. After following him to a room to pick him up, she says the footballer asked her to undress so she could get her phone. According to statements reported by France news, she reportedly said, “I want my phone, I don’t know what you’re thinking. I don’t want to have sex with you.” Benjamin Mendy would then have answered him “in any case the door is locked”. To enter the room, the player would have unlocked the door with his fingerprint. The woman then tells how the footballer would have raped her three times in about twenty minutes and claims to have bled after these reports. Before leaving the room, Benjamin Mendy would have asked him: “Don’t tell anyone and you can come here every night”, details BFM-TV. “As if it had been a privilege to come every night to do this with him,” asserts the complainant. She filed a complaint three weeks after the incident.
The French footballer pleads not guilty and denies the ten counts of sexual offenses against him. The defense will be able to speak later during the trial, which is expected to last more than three months. During the presentation of the facts by the court prosecutor, Benjamin Mendy “remained impassive”, reports France news. Serene since the start of his trial, he assures us that all the relationships were agreed. The two men “have shown no emotion since the start of their trial”, according to The Parisian.
In the United Kingdom, rape is not qualified in the same way as in France. Across the Channel, it is considered that there is rape when an individual (A) “intentionally penetrates the vagina, the anus or the mouth of an individual (B) with his penis without B consenting to this penetration and that A does not reasonably believe that B consents to it”, explains 20 minutes. The notion of consent may be questioned. In British justice, the plaintiffs are not at the heart of the trial. Finally, in the United Kingdom, the sentences are cumulative and a rape can be punished by four years in prison to life. Prosecuted for eight rapes, Benjamin Mendy could, if found guilty, end his life in prison.
In an article published in September 2021 in the Parisian, several of his relatives explain who Benjamin Mendy is, beyond what the general public knows and regret that no one has been able to put him back on the right track. “Ben comes from a poor family,” explains goalkeeper father Brice Samba, who took the young man under his roof for six months in Le Havre. “His parents, now deceased, never had much influence on him. Only his older brother, David, tried to substitute for his parents in an attempt to frame him, but he ended up giving up (.. .) As soon as he earned some money from football, in Le Havre, Benjamin bought clothes from the Louis Vuitton brand. It was his way of standing out. Then, in Marseille, it was is accelerated with money, notoriety and bad company (…) Benjamin’s main problem is that no one around him has been able to put him back on the right track,” said Brice Samba Senior. .