The trial of footballer Benjamin Mendy, accused of rape, opens in the United Kingdom

Published on: 08/10/2022 – 06:12 Accused of eight rapes, an attempted rape and a sexual assault, French footballer Benjamin Mendy is on trial from Wednesday in Chester for more than three months. At the beginning of January, he was placed under judicial supervision pending his trial. The trial of world football champion Benjamin Mendy, accused of eight rapes, an attempted rape and a sexual assault, opens on Wednesday August 10 in Chester in the north-west of England. Aged 28, the footballer French, suspended for a year by Manchester City, is accused by seven women and denies the ten counts which relate to facts which allegedly took place between October 2018 and August 2021 at his home in Prestbury, Cheshire. He is on trial alongside another man, Louis Saha Matturie – unrelated to former footballer Louis Saha -, prosecuted for eight rapes and four sexual assaults on eight women between July 2012 and August 2021. The latter also pleaded no guilty. Their trial was originally scheduled to open on July 25 but was postponed for two weeks. It is scheduled to last fifteen weeks, according to the court. The first days of this long-term trial must be devoted to the choice of jurors and the organization of the hearings. Benjamin Mendy’s trial opens two days after that of the Welshman and former Manchester United star Ryan Giggs, 48, accused of violence against his partner. A hope of French football Winner of the 2018 World Cup with the France team, Benjamin Mendy left the lawns for almost a year to the dock and jail cells in Liverpool and Manchester, where he spent more than four months, from August 2021 to January 2022, in pre-trial detention. Released at the beginning of January, he had been placed under judicial supervision pending his trial. Mendy has not played a single football match since August 15, 2021 with his club Manchester City, which suspended him at the start of the case. Trained in Le Havre, revealed in Marseille and spent a season with Monaco, Benjamin Mendy became the most expensive defender in history in 2017 when the Citizens paid 52 million pounds (about 61.4 million euros). euros at the current rate) to secure his services. Upon his arrival at City, he was considered one of the great French and world hopes for the left-back position. But his career has been hampered for four years by injuries and he has never really justified the hopes placed in him. With AFP