Benjamin Mendy: Weird atmosphere at footballer's party, trial told

A woman has told of the "weird atmosphere" at Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy's party where two young women were allegedly raped.

The court heard the woman and her friend were invited to Mr Mendy's home for an "after party" by a woman they met in the toilets at a club in Manchester.

The party was also attended by Manchester City player Jack Grealish.

Mr Mendy and Louis Saha Matturie have denied a number of sex offences.

Chester Crown Court has been told Mr Mendy, 28, allegedly raped a 17-year-old girl twice and a 23-year-old woman was allegedly raped by Mr Matturie, 41.

The woman and her friend, who had been in Chinawhite club, tagged along to the party, on 23 August last year, getting in a taxi outside the club with three other women and two men before arriving at a "massive house" that was "deep in Cheshire," she told police in a statement read to the jury.

On arrival a man took their phones and put them in a cardboard box along with numerous other mobiles.

She said: "The house was really busy and like a building site.

"Everyone seemed very drunk. It was like a party had happened and we turned up late."

She said there was a group of men and women in the lounge area, and a man was playing music on his phone and she had criticised his choice of music.

Her friend then whispered the man was 27-year-old England footballer, Mr Grealish, who, she said, then called her over to pick a song.

"He was being really flirty and kept commenting how nice I looked," she said.

She and her friend went downstairs to the swimming pool area, where she said there were "lots of randoms" and a girl wearing only underwear.

"It was a really weird atmosphere," she said in her statement, adding: "I started feeling a bit panicky. I didn't know where I was and had no phone."

The friends asked for their phones back but were told not to tell anyone where they had been - with "confidentiality" mentioned.

After getting a taxi at about 05:30 BST the two young women discussed "how weird it was" and how their phones had been "snatched out of their hands" when they arrived, the jury was told.

The jury also heard from a woman who said she was attacked by Mr Matturie at a house in Sheffield where then Sheffield Wednesday footballer Claude Dielna lived.

The woman, who was 18 at the time of the alleged incident in 2016, also told police about clubbing nights and "after parties" in Manchester, attended by Mr Matturie, Mr Mendy and others.

The jury heard the witness was not a football fan, and at one party, attended by more than 20 women, had failed to recognise Manchester United defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who, she said, became "mardy" and asked her: "Do you know who I am?"

In a 2016 police video interview played to the jury, the woman said she got to know footballers at a shisha bar in Sheffield and attended parties.

She said on one occasion she was sitting on a bed in Mr Dielna's house chatting to Mr Matturie when he sexually assaulted her, the court heard.

She told police: "He started to kiss me. I said, 'What are you doing?'

"He forced himself on top of me. I told him to get off. He said, 'Just enjoy it'.

"I was shouting at him, 'Get off. Get off. Stop'.

Later she said she began attending clubs and parties in Manchester, and she said Mr Matturie had spoken to her in a club, saying "forget about the past", to which she replied: "Yes, whatever".

Mr Mendy denies seven counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault against six young women.

Mr Matturie, of Eccles, Salford, denies six counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault relating to seven young women.

Both men have said if any sex took place it was consensual.

The trial continues.

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