Editor’s note: This report contains graphic details
Former Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy has been cleared of raping a woman and attempting to rape another following a retrial at Chester Crown Court.
Mendy, 28, has now been found not guilty of all claims against him, having been cleared of seven other counts — six of rape and one of sexual assault — in January at the end of a five-month trial.
Verdicts could not be reached on two claims relating to two women at the start of the year but a new jury on Friday took around three hours and 15 minutes to unanimously find him not guilty.
Mendy wept as the verdicts were delivered by the jury foreman, six months on from his earlier acquittals.
As Mendy left the court he said only, “alhamdulillah” — ‘thanks God’.
Jenny Wiltshire, head of serious and general crime at Hickman & Rose, the solicitors that represented Mendy, said: “Benjamin Mendy would like to thank the members of the jury for focusing on the evidence in this trial, rather than on the rumour and innuendo that have followed this case from the outset.
“This is the second time that Mr Mendy has been tried and found not guilty by a jury. He is delighted that both juries reached the correct verdicts.
“It has been almost three years since the police started investigating this matter. Mr Mendy has tried to remain strong but the process has, inevitably had a serious impact on him.
“He thanks everyone who has supported him throughout this ordeal and now asks for privacy so he can begin rebuilding his life.”
Mendy left City at the end of his contract in June this year, and had been suspended without pay by the Premier League club since he was arrested and remanded in custody in August 2021.
What was Benjamin Mendy accused of?
Benjamin Mendy was accused of eight counts of rape, one of attempted rape, and sexual assault relating to seven women, between October 2018 and August 2021.
He had been accused by Woman One of attempted rape — one count that the jury did not reach a verdict on during the first trial. The woman was seeing one of Mendy’s friends and stayed at the footballer’s Cheshire mansion after a night out. She claimed that he grabbed her and attempted to rape her on a bed, but Mendy said that he took a phone charger to her room and asked to have sex with her. She declined, according to Mendy, at which point he said that he had asked his friend’s permission and that he had given his blessing. That upset her, according to Mendy, and she left. He was found not guilty of attempted rape on Friday.
Woman Two accused Mendy of three different types of rape following a night out in October 2020. Mendy was cleared of two counts of rape and the jury could not agree on the third. He was cleared of that charge on Friday.
Woman Three accused Mendy of sexually assaulting her at a party at his Cheshire home on January 2, 2021 — the day before he was named on the bench for Manchester City’s trip to Chelsea. A raft of Covid-19 infections in the squad had caused City’s previous fixture against Everton to be postponed. The woman had discussed suing City. He was found not guilty in January.
Woman Four accused Mendy of raping her between his swimming pool and cinema room on July 23, 2021. She had gone downstairs to get changed, which is when, she said, Mendy followed her. The defence suggested she was “dragged into a situation” by the police and that they told her a witness account “would help the other girls”. Mendy said they had had consensual sex. “Both of us were enjoying it.” Mendy was found not guilty of that charge in January.
Woman Six and Woman Seven both alleged they were raped by Mendy on July 24, 2021. Mendy was found not guilty of Woman Seven’s allegations in September and of Woman Six’s on January 11.
Woman Six told the court she had attended a party at Mendy’s house before going upstairs to sleep, only to be awoken by the player who, she said, was raping her.
“She was awake all the time,” Mendy said, adding: “It was not forced, we were both cool and it was more of a nice way.”
Several months before the alleged rape, the woman said she had sex with Mendy, “like a one-night thing”, but added she was sober and it was consensual at the time.
Mendy’s defence said that Woman Six had been put under pressure by the police to say she had been raped.
The court heard that Woman Seven was invited to a pool party at Mendy’s house by her friend, Woman Six, before they went to a nightclub.
After returning to Mendy’s Cheshire home, she recalled waking up on the sofa to find Mendy having sex with her. “I remember trying to get away,” the court heard. “I was trying to get my hands in front of me from behind me.”
Woman Seven was asked about a video of her having “enthusiastic sex” with the other man, having claimed she had been raped.
“You and he (the other man) filmed that sex, didn’t you?” probed defence lawyer Lisa Wilding KC.
“He had his phone in his hand right in front of you throughout when you and he were having sex?” defence barrister Eleanor Laws KC asked before being met with another denial.
Woman Seven broke down in tears and insisted the sex was not consensual before the judge called a halt to the cross-examination.
Court resumed several hours later and the prosecution, who had not known the video existed, told the jury they were no longer pursuing charges in relation to Woman Seven’s allegations.
What happened in the first trial?
Mendy had unanimously been found not guilty of seven counts — six of rape, one of sexual assault — in January following 67 hours and 17 minutes of jury deliberations.
The first trial lasted five months and was beset by various delays, and after the initial verdicts were reached Judge Steven Everett discharged the jury and thanked them for the “great willingness”, “patience” and “stamina” they had shown.
Mendy stood trial with a co-defendant, who was found not guilty of three counts of rape.
Mendy had already been cleared of other counts on a remarkable day in court in September last year, when the video was played to the jury. Mendy was cleared of rape in relation to the same woman.
During the trial, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was a character witness on Mendy’s behalf and said, “He’s a really good boy, I would say (he is) so generous. I think he is happy and I remember that when we were together and everybody asks for some favours and he was able to do it.”
Mendy admitted to ongoing unprofessionalism during his time as a City player, including holding several parties before training and games, despite Covid-19 lockdown restrictions which prohibited gatherings, and taking measures to disguise those parties after being fined by his club. He also admitted to driving under the influence of alcohol.
His own defence barrister, Laws, called his behaviour “appalling”, but said. “It is not in his character to be the predatory monster the prosecution think he is.”
Mendy said he was “direct” with women: “I prefer to ask to have sex after few words than to be like, ‘Hello, can you meet the next day?’, ‘Can you go for a date?’”
He was arrested twice before he was remanded in custody in August 2021 and, when asked whether he thought he should change his behaviour in light of that, he said: “For me, everything was fine. I knew I went to the police interview and was arrested but because in my head I did nothing wrong, I just carried on.”
After being found not guilty, Jenny Wiltshire, head of serious and general crime at Hickman & Rose, released a statement on behalf of Mendy.
“He also thanks everyone who supported him, and particularly the witnesses who gave evidence on his behalf in the glare of such intense publicity.”
Why did it go to a second trial?
After those 67 hours and 17 minutes of deliberations, the jury could not reach a verdict on two counts. One was attempted rape and the other was rape, relating to two different women.
With no sign of unanimous verdicts relating to all charges in sight, the judge had asked for any counts upon which the jury agreed, and they duly delivered the seven counts. The judge then gave the jury another two days before asking if they had reached verdicts on the remaining charges, and when they had not, he asked whether they were likely to if given more time, and the answer was no.
Once the jury had been discharged, Mendy listened as the prosecution made it clear they would pursue a retrial.
The complication regarding the second trial was that the jury could not reach a verdict on the alleged rape, but had reached a verdict on two other counts of alleged rape relating to the same woman.
Mendy had been cleared of orally and anally raping the woman, but the jury could not agree with regards to an alleged vaginal rape. During the first trial, Mendy had admitted to touching the woman’s vagina with his penis, but denied he had penetrated her.
That was for a new jury to decide in the second trial, which started on June 26 in the same grand court number one at Chester Crown Court.
What happened in the second trial?
After the jury were sworn in on June 28, they listened to the evidence from Woman One and Woman Two before Mendy was put forward to be cross-examined by the defence and prosecution.
A key difference between the first and second trials is that the lead prosecutor changed.
In the initial trial, Timothy Cray KC acted for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). He was replaced by Benjamin Aina KC for the retrial.
During his cross-examination, Mendy admitted to “often” having unprotected sex and said he enjoyed having sexual intercourse with lots of different women.
Mendy also revealed that “it wasn’t difficult” to meet women, due to his status as a Premier League footballer.
At one point Mr Aina asked Mendy whether he “just wanted women who were interested in sex”, to which the 2018 World Cup winner replied, “Yeah”.
Mendy, however, continually denied that any of the sexual activity which took place was not consensual — and the jury in the retrial agreed.
Once the prosecution and defence had finished their closing speeches, Judge Everett, who also oversaw the first trial, summed up on Thursday.
The jury were sent out to consider their verdicts on Friday morning and returned just over three hours later and found the footballer not guilty of one count of attempted rape and one count of rape.
Is he still a Manchester City player?
Mendy stopped being paid his wages, thought to be around £100,000 a week, by City in September 2021.
The 10-cap France international, who turns 29 this week, remained under contract until June 30, when he was released by the club, and is now a free agent.
City did not release a statement when his contract ended, with the left-back instead featuring on a list of players who were not going to be retained beyond the end of the month.
Mendy’s final appearance for the 2022-23 treble winners was in a 1-0 loss away to Tottenham Hotspur on August 15, 2021. He also played in the Community Shield defeat by Leicester City at Wembley a week earlier.
He joined City from Monaco, of France’s top flight Ligue 1, in 2017 in a deal worth £52million ($68.1m at current exchange rates) and played 75 times in all competitions for them.
What now for Mendy?
Mendy is undoubtedly picking up the pieces of a playing career that has been on ice for over two and a half years.
At the end of the first trial, Laws, his lead barrister, said his “career in the UK is over, regardless of the verdict” because he will never be able to “shake off the allegations”. She also told the first jury to “look up Ched Evans” when making her point.
Even though he has been cleared of all of the charges, plenty has emerged about Mendy’s party-boy lifestyle, and you would expect that to be enough to put clubs in the Premier League off signing him.
That said, Mendy has received transfer interest but wanted to learn the outcome of the retrial before any potential decision on his future was made.
The former City player has kept himself in shape and looked slimmer during the retrial.
Given he is a World Cup and Premier League winner, and still under the age of 30, you would expect an overseas club somewhere to be interested in signing him. At this stage, the most obvious destination — and not based on fact — would appear to be the Saudi Pro League or somewhere similar.
Can the prosecution appeal?
No. As the CPS’s website says: “If the defendant has been found not guilty, we can’t appeal the verdict.
“This is because the law does not give us the right to appeal against the decision of the jury.”
Has Mendy said anything about being found not guilty?
Mendy was asked several questions, ranging from whether he will make a comeback to if he feels he has been treated unfairly, by the media as he left Chester Crown Court.
But all he said was “Alhamdulillah”, which translates to ‘thanks God’.
(Top photo: Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
