This is one of the most publicized trials of the year and it seems that we are not at the end of our surprises. Since mid-August, Benjamin Mendy is on the dock in the trial which opposes him to 7 different women who accuse him of 8 rapes, an attempted rape and a sexual assault for facts which allegedly took place between October 2018 and August 2021. Facts that he’s been denying it since the beginning of the case, just like the one who is designated as his accomplice, Louis Saha Matturie (no relation to the footballer Louis Saha). The two men claim to have done nothing illegal, but the testimonies have been accumulating for almost a month and a half and many women describe fairly similar scenes.
Most of the time, the charges against the 28-year-old footballer take place in his mansion, located away from the neighborhood and whose interior has been the subject of many questions from the jurors. If initially the trial was interested in the personality of Benjamin Mendy, for several weeks, the testimonies of the plaintiffs follow one another and yesterday, it was the turn of the cross-examination of a young woman aged 17 at the time of the events which was broadcast. The latter claims to have been raped twice by the footballer, then twice more by Louis Saha Matturie, on August 23, 2021. Facts which allegedly took place at the player’s home, but also in an apartment rented by his accomplice in the center- city of Manchester.
I didn’t want anything to happen between the two of us
Defense lawyers put the young woman in difficulty as reported by L’Équipe, pointing out contradictions in her story. A pressure that has visibly destabilized and irritated the complainant who ended up in tears several times. Despite everything, she continued her story, indicating that she found herself in an office in Benjamin Mendy’s mansion that she thought was closed. He would have it then raped vaginally and orally. “I didn’t want anything to happen between the two of us”she assures, before revealing the text message she would have received the next day: “Don’t forget the pill”.
The young woman also indicates that the world champion forced him to perform oral sex on her. “He forced me into oral sex (…) I did it but I didn’t say I wanted to”she says in tears in front of the lawyers of the accused, claiming to have had “so scary” during this traumatic moment.
Benjamin Mendy remains presumed innocent of the charges against him until the final judgment.