Ex-Man City's Benjamin Mendy denies sex attacks on two women

Former Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has denied sexually attacking two women.

The 28-year-old said two incidents with women who accuse him of abuse were both consensual, Chester Crown Court heard.

The footballer is accused of the attempted rape of a woman, aged 29 at the time, at his £4m mansion in Mottram St Andrew, Cheshire, in October 2018.

He is also accused of raping a woman, aged 24 at the time, at his home two years later. He denies both charges.

The French international was under contract to Manchester City until 1 July this year.

The footballer first met woman A, a UK student, while in a nightclub in Barcelona in late 2017 and she became intimate with one of his friends, the jury was told.

They kept in touch and a year later she arranged to visit Mr Mendy's friend at Mr Mendy's house, where they stayed after they all went with other girls for a night out in October 2018.

During the night, while clubbing, Mr Mendy told her he would "kidnap" her from his friend but he told the jury it was just a joke as they had been flirting with each other.

The next morning he said he went to her bedroom, where she was showering, and the two began hugging on the bed.

She alleges Mr Mendy appeared in the room "aroused" and tried to rape her on the bed before she struggled free.

Mendy told the jury: "I asked her if we [are] OK to have sex. She told me 'no' because of my friend.

"I was like, 'It's fine, my friend says it's OK. So if you want, he's OK with that'.

"It's when she started to be like that - upset, sad. I just left the room."

Two years later, woman B was out with friends at a bar in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, near Mr Mendy's home, when they were invited back to the footballer's house.

She alleges he took her phone from her, which contained "intimate" photos, then led her to his bedroom as she asked for her phone back.

Woman B told the jury he threw her phone on his bed and when she went to retrieve it he got behind her and raped her despite her saying she did not want to have sex.

Mr Mendy told the jury the two had a consensual sexual encounter and later swapped details on Snapchat.

Eleanor Laws KC, defending, asked the defendant: "Did you hold her down or force her on to the bed or penetrate her?"

Mr Mendy said: "No."

Under cross-examination, Benjamin Aina KC, prosecuting, asked him: "You were not used to women saying no?"

Mr Mendy said: "Of course I was."

Mr Aina said: "You wanted women who came to your house to party, get drunk and have sex?"

Mr Mendy said: "If they want."

He added: "I will never force to have sex with a woman."

The jury of six women and six men have been told by trial Judge Stephen Everett, the Recorder of Chester, that the footballer was found not guilty of sexual offences alleged by other women after a trial which ended in January.

But he told them that jury of the previous trial could not agree verdicts on the allegations made by women A and B, hence the retrial, which continues.

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