Benjamin Mendy, a French footballer, was brought back into a courtroom in the United Kingdom on Monday to face a retrial for two alleged sexual offenses. This comes five months after a jury exonerated him of many other charges of sexual misconduct.
Mendy, who plays for Manchester City and is 28 years old, was caught on camera as he entered and exited Chester Crown Court in northwest England as he prepared to re-enter the dock charged with one crime of rape and one count of attempted rape. Both charges stem from the same incident.
It is anticipated that the new jury will be picked on Tuesday, at which point the proceedings in his retrial will get underway.
During his most recent trial, which concluded in January, the jury was unable to make a decision on either of the two counts that involved distinct women.
After a six-month trial, the jury comprised of seven men and four women found that the defendant was not guilty of any of the seven additional charges of rape and one of sexual assault that were brought against him by the women.
For the two charges on which the jury did not deliver a verdict in January, the judge promptly scheduled a fresh trial date for the following Monday.
Mendy, whose contract with Manchester City is slated to expire at the end of this month and which, according to reports, is not going to be extended, has refuted all of the allegations that have been made against him.
Mendy hid his face with both hands and rocked back and forth in the courtroom in January as the not guilty verdicts were being read out.
One of his attorneys, Jenny Wiltshire, said at the time that the football player was “delighted” that he had been cleared of the majority of the offenses that he had been accused of.
She went on to say that at the time, he was anticipating “clearing his name in relation to the other two charges so that he can start rebuilding his life.”
charges of being a “predator”
Mendy was charged with Louis Saha Matturie, 41, an alleged “fixer,” who was declared not guilty by the jury of three counts of rape pertaining to two teens. The charges against Mendy were dropped after the jury’s decision.
In addition, the jury was unable to make a decision on the three allegations of rape and the three counts of sexual assault against Matturie that were brought against five additional women.
Later on this year, he will be subjected to a separate retrial.
The prosecution claimed that Mendy was a sexual “predator” who sexually abused or raped young ladies who had been brought to parties at Matturie’s opulent residence south of Manchester by Matturie. The women had been obtained by Matturie.
Mendy denied ever pushing any woman into sexual activity, and both he and his girlfriend said that any sexual encounters they had with women were entirely voluntary.
In 2017, Mendy made the move from French club Monaco to English team Manchester City. Although he has been on the field 75 times for City, his playing time has been restricted due to injuries and a decline in form.
Since the 15th of August 2021, he has not participated in any games. This was only a few days before he was first charged with four charges of rape and one count of sexual assault.
After helping France to win the World Cup in 2018, the defender earned his tenth and last cap for his country in November of 2019.