“Women came to me”
The 2018 world champion with the France team spoke for the first time since the start of his trial in England. The Manchester City player has denied having forced non-consensual sex.
He denies non-consensual sex and says women “came to him”. Benjamin Mendy spoke for the first time to defend himself on Monday during his trial in the United Kingdom. Aged 28, the French defender, suspended for more than a year by Manchester City, has been on trial since early August in Chester, in the north of England, where he is accused of seven rapes, an attempted rape and sexual assault. The facts allegedly took place between October 2018 and August 2021 at his home in Prestbury, Cheshire. He faces life imprisonment.
The first months of this long trial were devoted to the prosecution, which presented Benjamin Mendy as a “predator” having abused victims “vulnerable, terrified and isolated”. Since Monday, it is now up to the defense to speak. Benjamin Mendy, navy blue suit and white shirt, spoke for the first time to defend himself, answering questions from his lawyer.
“If a woman had said ‘no’, [j’aurais] stopped”
He said that because of his status as a soccer player, women “came to [lui]». If he said “like to sleep with many women”, he denied non-consensual sex, believing that “if they wanted to have sex and I did too, it was fine”. But if a woman had said «non», Benjamin Mendy says he “would have accepted it and would have stopped”.
He is judged alongside another man, Louis Saha Matturie – unrelated to former footballer Louis Saha -, prosecuted on his side for six rapes and three sexual assaults. They both pleaded not guilty.
Winner of the 2018 World Cup with the France team, where he was a substitute, Benjamin Mendy spent more than four months, from August 2021 to January 2022, in pre-trial detention. Released in early January, he was 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.