Witnesses accused Mendy of locking them in rooms
Manchester City player Benjamin Mendy is currently on trial at Chester Crown Court in England on eight counts of rape and one sexual assault, that were alleged to have taken place between 2018 and 2021.
Details have begun to emerge from the trial about the crimes that both Mendy and co-defendant, Louis Saha Matturie are accused of committing.
Opening the case, Timothy Cray QC said it had “very little to do with football” and more about men who “think they are powerful”.
Offences against seven young women are alleged to have taken place at Mendy‘s isolated mansion home between October 2018 and August 2021.
Some women said they had their mobile phones taken away, while others said they were attacked in locked rooms.
Benjamin Mendy accused of raping three women in one night
The court was told Mendy raped three women in the same night following a pool party at his mansion and a trip to Manchester’s China White nightclub.
“It is another chapter in a very old story: men who rape and sexually assault women because they think they are powerful and because they think they can get away with it,” Cray said.
“These women were disposable: things to be used for sex, then thrown to one side.
“That was the effect of deliberate, planned choices the defendants made, and the desires they let loose many times.”
Benjamin Mendy accused of raping women in a panic room
Two of the women said that Mendy had raped them in locked rooms. There were special locking mechanisms that essentially created a ‘panic room’ in the event of a burglary, a system commonly used by wealthy individuals in their homes. They can only be opened from the inside.
“The point is that you have to know how to open them from the inside, and you’ll perhaps see how the witnesses might have gotten the impression that they are locked in,” Cray continued.
Mendy has pleaded not guilty to all charges brought against him. The trial is ongoing and expected to last over three months.