The soccer world champion, the French Benjamin Mendyaccused of several rapes in England, was presented to the jury on Monday as a “predator” who abused “vulnerable, terrified and isolated” victims.
The 28-year-old French defender, suspended for a year for the Manchester Cityis being tried in Chester, in the north of England, for eight rapes, one attempted rape and one sexual assault against seven women.
Mendy denies it
Mendy denies the ten charges against him, which concern events that allegedly occurred between October 2018 and August 2021 at his home in Prestbury, Cheshire.
The footballer faces life in prison. In the same trial, another man, Louis Saha Matturie -no relation to former soccer player Louis Saha- is also charged with eight rapes and four sexual assaults on eight women between July 2012 and August 2021. He also pleaded not guilty.
After the first two days of the trial dedicated to the selection of the jury and the organization of the hearings, the court focused on the matter on Monday with the start of the exposition of the prosecution. “The case is simple,” said the prosecutor. Timothy Cray to the jury.
“It doesn’t have much to do with football. It’s another chapter in a very old story: men who rape and assault women because they think they have power and because they think they will get away with it,” he continued.
Cray called the two defendants “predators willing to commit serious sexual abuse” on “vulnerable, terrified and isolated” young victims, noting that some women’s phones may have been seized when they came to the player’s home.
Who had the power?
The prosecutor also shed light on the links between Mendy and Saha, which until now had not been clarified.
Mendy’s friend Saha, according to Cray, was responsible for “finding young women and creating situations where they could be raped and sexually assaulted.” “Ask yourself,” Cray challenged jurors, “who had the power and control in the situations these women lived through?”
The doors of restaurants and nightclubs were opened to him, people wanted to be with him”
At that time, Mendy was living “a period of success and enjoying a privileged life,” the prosecutor added. “The doors of restaurants and nightclubs were opened to him, people wanted to be with him” and “Saha was part of this world, he contacted the girls, he called them,” the accusation detailed.
According to the prosecutor, the defendants “knew very well what they were doing” and were “willing to cross the line” of consent “again and again”. “In our time, no one can ignore that ‘no’ means ‘no,'” Cray recalled, whether he’s “at the bar, in an evening gown, or in a footballer’s apartment,” he pointed out.
It is expected that the highly publicized trial, which takes place in Chester Crown Courtin south-west Manchester, lasts more than three months.
Winner of the 2018 World Cup with the France team, where he played an important role, Mendy spent more than four months, from August 2021 to January 2022, in preventive detention.
Released in early January, the French footballer was placed under judicial control pending trial. Trained in Le Havre, he became known at Olympique de Marseille and spent a season at Monaco.
Mendy became the most expensive defender in history in 2017 after the Citizens shelled out 52 million pounds (61.4 million euros today, $62.5 million) to sign him.
AFP
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