After five months of trial, the French international footballer Benjamin Mendy was declared not guilty of six rapes and a sexual assault this Friday January 13, 2023 by British justice. He will be retried in June on two other charges, on which the jury did not reach a verdict.
28 years old, Manchester City player had been appearing since August 2022 before the court in Chester, in the north of England.
After 14 days of deliberation, the jurors acquitted Benjamin Mendy six rapes and one sexual assault out of four women. They, however, failed to agree on a verdict on two other counts, one for rape of a 24-year-old woman in October 2020 and one of attempted rape of a 29-year-old woman in 2018. .
Suspended for more than a year by his club Manchester City
Benjamin Mendy, world champion in 2018, will thus be retried for two to three weeks from June 26 for these charges, announced judge Steven Everett. A procedural hearing is scheduled for January 27.
“ He can’t wait to clear his name ” to can ” start rebuilding your life “said his lawyer Jenny Wiltshire. Benjamin Mendy is “ very pleased “to have been acquitted” unanimously of most of the charges against him, she added.
The defender with ten selections with the Blues, suspended for more than a year by his club Manchester City, risked life in prison.
His co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie, presented as his tout, was found not guilty of three rape charges and the jury did not reach a verdict on three other charges of rape and three of sexual assault.
The deliberation several times interrupted
After four months of hearing, the jury, made up of eight men and four women, retired to deliberate on December 5. But talks had been halted several times due to Covid-19 cases, then for a long-planned break, before a truce over the holiday season.
In court, the prosecution presented Benjamin Mendy as a ” predator “having abused victims” vulnerable, terrified and isolated “. The footballer denied having been a danger to women “, Assuring to have had only consensual sexual relations.
The Manchester club took note of the verdict, but considered that it was unable to comment further because this case is not closed.
Winner of the 2018 World Cup with the France team, where he was a substitute, Benjamin Mendy was imprisoned at the end of August 2021 and spent more than four months in pre-trial detention. Released in early January 2022, he had been placed under judicial supervision pending trial.
Trained in Le Havre, revealed in Marseille and spent a season with Monaco, Benjamin Mendy became the most expensive defender in history in 2017 when the Citizens paid 52 million pounds (about 61.4 million euros at the current price). ) to secure his services.
(With AFP)