Premier League footballer Benjamin Mendy has been cleared of sex attacks on four women following a six-month trial, as prosecutors sought a retrial over two other allegations.
The Manchester City star, 28, sitting in the dock at Chester Crown Court, covered his face with both hands, gently rocking back and forth, as the jury foreman, delivering the verdicts in a hushed courtroom, repeated “not guilty” to six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, relating to four young women or teenagers.
The unanimous verdicts were delivered on Wednesday by the seven men and four women on the jury, one juror having been discharged earlier for medical reasons.
The verdicts could not be reported until jurors concluded considering the remaining two counts, after they were given a majority direction by Judge Steven Everett, meaning he would accept a 10-1 majority on any verdict.
But after 14 days of deliberation, jurors could not reach verdicts on Mendy’s alleged attempted rape of a woman, 29, in 2018 and the rape of another woman, 24, in October 2020.
Judge Everett discharged the jury on Friday, ending the trial.
Louis Saha Matturie, 41, his co-accused and alleged “fixer” was found not guilty by the jury of three counts of rape relating to two teenagers.
Jurors also failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault against him by five other women.
Both had been on trial since August 10, accused of multiple sexual offences by 13 women.
Matthew Conway, prosecuting, said the prosecution will seek a retrial on the counts the jury could not reach verdicts on.
He said: “The prosecution has made a decision. We have made a decision today, which is to proceed on these counts in two separate trials and we seek today a provisional case management.”
Jurors were told not to take a “moralistic” approach to the defendants’ sexual lifestyles, and the approach of Cheshire Police was also criticised in court.
Eleanor Laws KC, defending Mendy, suggested “regret” at having “quick, animalistic sex” is not the same as being raped.
Ms Wilding said the sexual habits and lifestyles of the defendants did not make them rapists, and that women over the last 40 years had earned sexual equality, however that is expressed.
She said complainants in this case had actively pursued sex with men they hardly knew and that is their right – but it can come with hurt and embarrassment after.
Mendy had denied seven counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault against six young women, between October 2018 and August 2021.
Matturie, of Eccles, Salford, denied six counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault relating to seven young women, between July 2012 and August 2021.
Source: MARCA
