French soccer player Benjamin Mendy was found not guilty of six rapes and one sexual assault by a British court on Friday, but will face a retrial on two charges of rape and attempted rape on which the jury failed to reach a verdict .
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As the decision was announced, the 28-year-old Manchester City player placed both hands on his face, rocking back and forth slightly.
After 14 days of deliberation in the court of Chester (north of England), the jury acquitted him of six rapes and one sexual assault on four women. But he failed to reach a verdict on a seventh charge of rape and attempted rape.
Benjamin Mendy will thus be retried from June 26 for these charges, announced Judge Steven Everett.
The French international defender, suspended for more than a year by his club Manchester City, had appeared since early August at the Chester court. Accused of seven rapes, an attempted rape and a sexual assault, he risked life imprisonment.
His co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie (unrelated to former footballer Louis Saha), presented as his tout, was found not guilty of three rape charges and the jury did not reach a verdict on three other charges of rape and three of sexual assault.
At the hearing, the prosecution presented Benjamin Mendy as a “predator” who abused “vulnerable, terrified and isolated” victims.
The player denied having been “a danger to women”, claiming to have had only consensual sex.
Winner of the 2018 World Cup with the France team, where he was a substitute, Benjamin Mendy was imprisoned at the end of August 2021 and spent more than four months in pre-trial detention.
Released in early January 2022, he had been placed under judicial supervision pending trial.
Trained in Le Havre, revealed in Marseille and spent a season with Monaco, Benjamin Mendy became the most expensive defender in history in 2017 when the Citizens paid 52 million pounds (about 61.4 million euros at the current price). ) to secure his services.