Benjamin Mendy found not guilty of rape and attempted rape at Chester Crown Court

Benjamin Mendy, former Manchester City player, was found not guilty at Chester Crown Court on charges related to sexual offences.

Benjamin Mendy has been acquitted of charges of rape and attempted rape by a jury at Chester Crown Court.

A former Manchester City player was accused of rape at his home in Cheshire in October 2020.

A man was charged with attempted rape of a woman at his home two years prior.

In a recent trial at Chester Crown Court, Mendy, who had pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, was found not guilty by a jury of six men and six women. He had maintained that the encounters in question were consensual.

In my previous response, I mentioned that a footballer was acquitted of sexual offences against several women earlier this year, although the jury couldn’t reach verdicts on two charges.

Mendy hosted parties at his home, The Spinney, while under contract at Manchester City.

In 2017, Mendy met a British student in a nightclub in Barcelona. They became close, and she planned to visit him at his home the next year.

After a night out she alleged Mendy tried to rape her.

But the footballer told the jury: “I asked her if we are OK to have sex. She told me, ‘No’ because of my friend. “I was like, ‘It’s fine, my friend says it’s OK, so if you want, he’s OK with that. It’s when she started to be like that – upset, sad. I just left the room.”

A woman goes to a bar with friends near Mendy’s home and they are invited back to the footballer’s house.

She alleged he took her phone from her and led her to a locked bedroom. Mendy threw the phone onto a bed and, as she went to retrieve it, Mendy is alleged to have raped her.

Mendy told the jury the two had a consensual sexual encounter and later swapped details on Snapchat.

He was asked whether he had held her down or forced her onto the bed. He said: “No.”

He told the jury: “I will never force to have sex with a woman.”

Mendy became the Premier League’s most expensive defender when City paid £52m to Monaco for him in 2017.

The content provided includes the accomplishments of a player who won titles with Manchester City and was part of France’s 2018 World Cup-winning squad.

A player was released by his club when his contract expired.