Court told ‘predator’ Mendy turned pursuit of women into a game

Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy is a “predator” who “turned the pursuit of women for sex into a game”, a court has heard.

The 28-year-old’s trial for eight counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault began at Chester Crown Court yesterday.

Prosecutors allege the French international showed a “callous indifference” towards his accusers, who were described in court as “vulnerable, scared, isolated”.

Mendy, a £52 million Premier League star who prosecutors said enjoyed a “privileged and moneyed lifestyle”, is alleged to have committed the offences against seven young women between October 2018 and August last year.

Jurors heard the defender was “prepared to cross that line” of consent “over and over again” and if “women got hurt or distressed, too bad”.

Opening the case against the defendant, a jury panel of eight men and six women, two of whom will be discharged after the opening, were told by prosecutor Timothy Cray QC: “The prosecution case is simple – it is another chapter in a very old story – men who rape and sexually assault women because they think they are powerful, and because they think they can get away with it.”

Mr Cray said the feelings of the alleged victims “counted for nothing”, adding: “These women were disposable, things to be used for sex, then thrown to one side.”

Mendy’s co-accused, Louis Saha Matturie, 40, denies eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault.

Mr Cray told jurors that Mr Saha, of Salford, was Mendy’s friend and fixer, and one of his jobs was “to find young women and to create the situations where those young women could be raped and sexually assaulted”.

The prosecutor told jurors they will hear from 13 different women.

The jury heard that central to the case is Mendy’s home, The Spinney, described as an isolated mansion, in Mottram St Andrew in rural Cheshire.

Mr Cray said there were five dates, between October 2018 and August 2021, when nine young women arrived at the footballer’s address and afterwards made complaints of rape and, or, sexual assault against Mendy and Saha.

Once at the house, the victims were vulnerable for a number of reasons, the jury heard, including having their mobile phones taken away once they arrived, some victims believing they were in locked rooms, and the differences in ages and wealth between the defendants and the complainants.

Both men deny all charges.

The trial continues.

Benjamin Mendy arrives for the court hearing.