French footballer Benjamin Mendy acquitted of charges of six rapes and sexual assault

French footballer Benjamin Mendy was found not guilty of six rapes and one sexual assault on Friday by a British court, but will be retried on two counts of rape and attempted rape for which the jury failed to reach a verdict.

During the announcement of the decision, the 28-year-old Manchester City player raised his hands to his face and swayed slightly from front to back. At the end of the 14 days of deliberation by the Chester court, in the north of England, the jury acquitted him of six rapes and a sexual assault on four women. But it failed to reach a verdict on a seventh count of rape and attempted rape.

Therefore, Benjamin Mendy will be tried again from June 26 on those charges, Judge Steven Everett announced. The French international defender, suspended for more than a year by his club Manchester City, had appeared in Chester court since the beginning of August. Charged with seven rapes, one attempted rape and one sexual assault, he faced life in prison.

Fellow defendant Louis Saha Matturie (no connection to former player Louis Saha), presented as his accomplice, was found not guilty on three counts of rape and a jury failed to reach a verdict on three other counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault.

At the hearing, the prosecution presented Benjamin Mendy as a “predator”, who would have abused “vulnerable, terrified and isolated” victims. The footballer denied having been “a danger to women”, assuring that he had only had consensual sexual relations.

Winner of the 2018 World Cup with the French team, Mendy entered prison at the end of August 2021 and spent more than four months in preventive detention. Released at the beginning of January 2022, he was placed under judicial control pending his trial.

Benjamin Mendy became the most expensive defender in history in 2017 when Manchester City paid 52 million pounds (about 61.4 million euros at current exchange rates) to Monaco for his services.