read and not believe. Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy was charged on August 26, 2021 with 8 counts of rape and sexual assault against women, but no one believed that the charges from the trial against the Frenchman, world champion with the French national team in 2018, would be so shocking
The jury at Chester Crown Court heard in the indictment that Mandy raped women in locked “panic rooms” inside his isolated mansion, from which those women believed they could not escape. “Panic rooms” or by another name “safe rooms” are sealed and fortified rooms installed in a private residence or business to provide a safe hiding place for residents in case of emergency, only in this case and in a sickeningly simple way – the French used those rooms for a completely different purpose.
The jury also heard that the 28-year-old defender used his wealth and fame to lure women back to his gated home in Cheshire, raping them when they said no or were too drunk to consent. According to the indictment, Mandy met many of those women in Manchester nightclubs, often with the help of his “handler”, 41-year-old Louis Saha Matori, who is also charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual assault.
In the charges against the two, it is claimed that “the sexual conquest of young women has become a ‘game'” for them. According to the plaintiff, Timothy Crayone of Saha’s duties was to “find young women and arrange situations where those young women could be raped and sexually assaulted.” In July 2021, Saha allegedly offered to pay a woman to attend a party at Mandy’s house with a friend instead of working a night club shift. The woman later told police that Mandy raped her in a room His cinema without using contraception, as two of Mandy’s associates blocked her friend when she went to look for her – the jury was told.
The indictment alleges that Mandy and Saha had a common goal – “These women were disposable: those who would be used for sex, then thrown to another side,” said Cray. Two of the women told police they were “switched” between the two at Mandy’s multi-million pound mansion, where he held pool parties. Five said they were raped or sexually assaulted exclusively by Mandi and six exclusively by Saha. In the same breath, the men deny all 22 charges brought against them.
Mandy’s alleged offenses took place at his gated estate in a village near Macclesfield between October 2018 and 2021. The nearest village, Prestbury, was a 15 minute walk along an unlit country lane. Some of the women told the police that their phones were taken from them when they arrived. Ostensibly this was to protect Mandy and others from social media exposure. “I imagine Mandy didn’t want Pep Guardiola to see him on Instagram with a bunch of girls late at night,” said Cray – but it also left them unable to call for help.
One of the women said Mandy tried to rape her after she went to his house to meet another footballer. Another told detectives she was on her period when Mandy raped her. Another woman, who accuses the two men of rape, was 17 at the time. Two of the women said Mandy raped them in locked rooms – the office and the master bedroom.
“Both men knew what they were doing,” Kray said. “They weren’t in some blissful state of sexual ignorance about how this all works – they knew very well what they were doing. They turned the pursuit of women into a game for sex and if women were hurt – too bad. Make it go away.” As I recall, his sentence may range from five to – 20 years in prison, although he could face a possible life sentence. The trial continues these days.