After a six-month trial, Premier League footballer Benjamin Mendy was found not guilty of sexually assaulting four women, though the prosecution is now seeking a new trial on two additional counts.
The 28-year-old Manchester City player, who was in the dock at Chester Crown Court, covered his face with both hands while he slowly rocked back and forth as the jury foreman repeatedly said “not guilty” to six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault involving four young ladies or teenagers.
The jury of seven men and four women, with one member dismissed earlier due to illness, rendered the unanimous judgments on Wednesday.
According to Africanews, the verdicts could not be reported until jurors concluded considering the remaining two counts, after they were given a majority direction by Judge Steven Everett, meaning he would accept a 10-1 majority on any verdict.
But after 14 days of deliberation, jurors could not reach verdicts on Mendy’s alleged attempted rape of a woman, 29, in 2018 and the rape of another woman, 24, in October 2020.
Judge Everett discharged the jury on Friday, ending the trial.
Louis Saha Matturie, 41, his co-accused and alleged “fixer” was found not guilty by the jury of three counts of rape relating to two teenagers.
Jurors also failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault against him by five other women.
Both had been on trial since August 10, accused of multiple sexual offences by 13 women.
Matthew Conway, prosecuting, said the prosecution will seek a retrial on the counts the jury could not reach verdicts on.
He said: “The prosecution has made a decision. We have made a decision today, which is to proceed on these counts in two separate trials and we seek today a provisional case management.”
The allegations and trial had been “absolute hell” for Mendy, the court heard, and his life in football “is over” as he would “never escape” the accusations.
Benjamin Mendy had been accused of being a “predator” who turned the pursuit of women for sex into a game, his trial heard, drinking champagne in VIP areas of Manchester nightclubs before inviting young women into “toxic and dangerous” situations at “after-parties” at his £4.7 million Cheshire mansion in Mottram St Andrew, near Prestbury.
But jurors were also told by defence lawyers that while the trial, involving money, sex and celebrity, had “all the makings of a good drama”, it came with a significant “plot twist” – the accused were innocent.
Lockdown-busting parties were held both at Mendy’s home and an apartment he rented on Chapel Street near Manchester city centre, the court heard.
He was first arrested in November 2020 after the alleged triple rape of the 24-year-old woman at his home the previous month.
Benjamin Mendy was released under investigation before he was later accused of sexually assaulting another woman, aged 24, two months later, and while on police bail for that offence, was later accused of the rape of three other women, one aged 17 – all offences of which he was cleared.
Mendy was suspended by his club in August 2021, after he was charged with rape.