The Manchester City and France footballer Benjamin Mendy raped a woman at his home and then told her: “It’s fine, I’ve had sex with 10,000 women,” a jury has heard.
Mendy met the woman while she was out with friends at a bar in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, and invited them back to his mansion in Mottram St Andrew, Chester crown court heard.
The woman alleges that Mendy took her phone from her, led her to his bedroom, locked the door and then raped her.
Mendy, 28, is facing one charge of raping the woman in 2020, when she was 24. He is also charged with the attempted rape of another woman in 2018 when she was 29. He denies both charges.
The judge, Stephen Everett, the recorder of Chester, told the jury that Mendy was found not guilty of sexual offences alleged by other women after a trial that ended in January this year.
He said the jury last time could not reach verdicts on the two charges that the new jurors were now hearing, hence a retrial.
Benjamin Aina KC, prosecuting, said: “Benjamin Mendy is a footballer who was under contract to Manchester City FC. He would have parties and social gatherings at his home, The Spinney, in Mottram St Andrew, Cheshire. He would have both male and female guests at his social gatherings.
“It is the prosecution case that on two occasions Mr Mendy took advantage of two of his female guests. On one occasion he tried to have forced sex with a female guest, woman A. On another occasion he raped a female guest in one of his bedrooms, woman B.”
Outlining details of the alleged rape of woman B, Aina said Mendy led her to his bedroom where she asked for her phone back. The court heard she was concerned because it contained “intimate” images.
In the locked bedroom, Aina said, Mendy told the woman he just wanted to look at her, telling her to take her clothes off. Woman B complied, leaving her underwear on, and Mendy then threw her phone on the bed, the court heard.
As she went to retrieve it, Mendy is alleged to have taken hold of her from behind and raped her despite her telling him she did not want to have sex.
Aina told the jury: “At this stage Mr Mendy took a step back and said: ‘You’re too shy.’ Mr Mendy said: ‘It’s fine. I’ve had sex with 10,000 women.’”
Outlining the attempted rape charge, Aina said Mendy first met woman A, a British student, while in a nightclub in Barcelona in late 2017 and she became intimate with one of his friends.
They kept in touch and a year later she arranged to visit Mendy’s friend at the footballer’s house, where they stayed after they all went with other young women for a night out.
The morning after, when she took a shower in the en suite bathroom, Mendy appeared, uninvited, wearing just boxer shorts and holding himself, and he was “aroused”, the court heard.
Mendy is alleged to have grabbed the woman and tried to rape her on the bed as she tried to struggle free and repeatedly told him to stop.
Mendy told police that on both occasions any sexual contact was consensual and he denied any wrongdoing.
The trial continues and is expected to last three weeks.
