2023-06-26 07:29:57
The 28-year-old French international was found not guilty of six rapes and a sexual assault last January. The jury did not reach a verdict on two charges, relating to the rape of a 24-year-old woman in October 2020 and the attempted rape of a 29-year-old woman in 2018, which will be reexamined for three weeks. in Chester.
Acquitted in January of most of the charges against him, the French international footballer Benjamin Mendy is back on Monday June 26 in British justice to be retried for rape and attempted rape. After five months of trial and 14 days of deliberation, the 28-year-old French international was found not guilty of six rapes and one sexual assault at the end of January. The jury did not reach a verdict on two charges, relating to the rape of a 24-year-old woman in October 2020 and the attempted rape of a 29-year-old woman in 2018, which will be reexamined for three weeks. in Chester.
At the hearing, which began last August, the prosecution presented Benjamin Mendy as a “predator” who abused “vulnerable, terrified and isolated” victims. The footballer denied having been “a danger to women”, claiming to have only had consensual sex. The defender with 10 selections with the Blues, suspended by his Manchester City club which did not renew his contract which expires on June 30, risked life imprisonment.
According to his lawyer, he is “eager to clear his name”
After four months of hearings, the jury, made up of eight men and four women, retired to deliberate on December 5, but the discussions had been interrupted several times due to cases of Covid-19 and then for a planned break from long date, before a truce during the holiday season. After the verdict was announced, the lawyer for the Manchester City player, world champion in 2018, Jenny Wiltshire, stressed that he was “eager to clear his name” so that he could “start to rebuild his life”.
His co-accused Louis Saha Matturie (unrelated to former footballer Louis Saha), 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.
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.
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