Benjamin Mendy: Woman looked worried at party, court told

A woman who said footballer Benjamin Mendy raped her "looked worried" and asked a friend to "check on her in five minutes" as she left a room during a party at his home, a court has heard.

Mr Mendy, 28, denies eight counts of rape attempted rape and sexual assault.

The witness told Chester Crown Court she saw Mr Mendy follow the woman after she said she needed to get her bag from a cinema room.

The court was told two men stopped another woman from checking on her.

The jury heard the witness was at the party at the Manchester City footballer's home, The Spinney in Mottram St Andrew, on 23 July 2021.

She said at one point in the evening, she saw the woman heading downstairs towards a cinema room, pool and gym and saw Mr Mendy behind her.

The woman has alleged that Mr Mendy raped her in the cinema room.

The witness told the court: "She said, 'I need to go downstairs to get my bag so that I can get changed for work but please can you come and check on me if I'm not back in five minutes?'.

"I said, 'Yeah, course, why?'

"She didn't specifically say that she was worried, but I could tell by the look on her face she was.

"She just said, 'Well, Ben's coming down with me', and gave me a look."

The jury was then told a fellow partygoer who tried to check on the woman was from stopped from doing so by two men.

Another witness later told the court the woman told her during a "very, very brief conversation" that she had slept with Mr Mendy.

"She was fine. I think she'd had a little bit to drink," she said.

Mr Mendy denies eight counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault.

His friend and fixer Louis Saha Matturie, 41, of Eccles, Salford is also on trial and had denied eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault.

The court was also told during the same party, Mr Matturie "grabbed" a woman while they were in a car after going to buy more alcohol.

The woman, giving evidence from behind a screen, said he had grabbed her neck "out of nowhere" and pulled her "towards his face".

She said he "gripped" her inner thigh with his other hand and "wasn't taking no for an answer".

She told the court she managed to get out of the car when someone came to help take the shopping in, before Mr Matturie said to her: "Well, later then."

The trial continues.

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