Sports Desk : dhakamirror.com
France footballer Benjamin Mendy broke down in tears on Friday, as a jury cleared him of sex offences.
Mendy, 28, put his head on his knees and wiped away tears on hearing the verdict at the end of the three-week trial at Chester Crown Court in northwest England.
He had previously being cleared in January of six counts of rape and one of sexual assault following a six-month trial.
Mendy, 28, was first arrested in November 2020 and was suspended by by Manchester City football club in August 2021, later being released from his contract.
In the case brought to Chester Crown Court, Mendy was accused two women during lockdown breaching parties.
Jurors were unable to reach an agreement on the third count, which is said to have occurred in October 2020.
One of the alleged victims in the retrial, referred to as Woman Two, claimed she was ‘forcefully’ raped by Mendy in October 2022 after they met in a bar.
The woman is alleged to have been invited back to Mendy’s residence with her friends, where they were instructed to hand over mobile phones.
Once inside the premises, Woman Two is said to have followed Mendy into his bedroom when the internal locking system locked the door behind them.
Jurors heard claims that Mendy said she could get her phone back if she stripped naked, prompting the complainant to make clear: “I do not want to have sex with you”.
Mendy is said to have persisted, adding: “If you just take off your clothes. I just wanna have a look at you. I promise you I won’t touch you.
“I just wanna see what you look like. I wanna see your body. I wanna see your t. Your t are so big.”
Woman Two claimed the footballer then raped her as she repeatedly told him no.
Mendy later called the woman “too shy,” before claiming he’d “had sex with 10,000 women.”
Woman One was allegedly targeted by the French international during a gathering at his Cheshire mansion in Mottram St Andrew, near Prestbury.
Jurors heard claims that Mendy followed Woman One into the bathroom and attempted to rape her while she called out ‘stop’ in French.
Mendy is alleged to have held her down and said: “Don’t worry. Are you scared?”
Message receipts show that the woman later contacted a friends to say: “I just got sexually abused, if that’s the right word, by Mendy.”
