Benjamin Mendy ‘took phone before using pick-up line and trying to rape woman’

Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy gave women the same ‘intro line’ before trying to rape them, a court heard.

The footballer, 28, denies raping and sexually assaulting seven women on five different occasions at his Cheshire mansion between October 2018 and August last year.

Mendy is said to have told two of the alleged victims ‘I just want to see you naked’ – before trying to rape them, the prosecution claimed.

Also on trial is Mendy’s friend and ‘fixer’ Louis Saha Matturie, 41, who allegedly helped find young women for Mendy and was present at parties where women claim they were raped.

Two of the women were taken into rooms they believed were locked and two were allegedly raped by both men on the same evenings, the court heard.

The claims came as the trial, which is due to last until November, began at Chester Crown Court this morning.

The French International denies eight counts of rape, one count of sexual assault and one count of attempted rape. Saha, of Eccles, denies eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault against seven different women.

While all of the charges Mendy is facing took place at his mansion in Cheshire, some of the offences Saha is accused of allegedly took place at a flat in Salford, Manchester, rented by Mendy.

Mendy joined Manchester City from Monaco in 2017 in a deal worth more than £50m. The 10-times France international has made more than 70 appearances for City and has won three Premier League medals.

Prosecutor Timothy Cray QC told jurors this afternoon the pair targeted women who were “very drunk” to the point they had “little or no memory of what was going on because they were asleep or waking up from sleep”.

“Special locks”

Jurors saw footage from Mendy’s house showing the locks, which can only be unlocked from the inside of the room and are designed to stop burglars from getting in, the court heard.

Mr Cray claimed: “On the master bedroom and office there are special locks, the legitimate purpose of these locks is that if you are likely to be a target for burglars they create a panic room.

“You can’t get in from the outside but you can open them from the inside if you know what to do. The witnesses get the impression, when taken there by Mendy, they are locked in.”

Mendy allegedly attempted to rape a woman in her late 20s at his home in Mottram St Andrew, known as ‘The Spinney’, in October 2018.

The court heard the woman, who met Mendy at a club in Spain the year before, travelled to Manchester to party with him and another footballer and stayed at Mendy’s house afterwards.

Mr Cray said: “She spends the night at The Spinney and then the next day around lunchtime she was having a shower on the first floor in one of the guest rooms.

“Mendy comes into that bathroom and according to her, he starts to touch himself in front of her. She tries to start to leave and get a towel to cover herself up.

Mr Cray claimed: “He says ‘I just want to see you naked’. He tugged at her towel and she pushed him away trying to get away and was unable to leave and it became a struggle with her being pulled backwards wrestling around on the bed.”

“Mendy took the phone”

The court heard Mendy was doing “everything he could” to rape the woman but she was able to stop him.

Mendy is then accused of three counts of rape against a woman in her mid 20s during a party at his house in October 2020.

It was alleged guests were asked to hand over their phones but the alleged victim hid her phone and was caught using it to message a friend.

Mr Cray said: “Part of this we will accept is to protect Mendy and others from unwanted social media intrusion. Mendy did not want Pep Guardiola to see him on Instagram out late at night with a load of girls.

“It also undoubtedly had the effect of making the girls themselves feeling that bit more cut off.

“She hid her mobile telephone and when she was in the pool area she was messaging a friend. On seeing this Mendy took the phone from her and said he was going to check it.”

“I just want to look at you”

Jurors heard Mendy took the phone upstairs to his bedroom and was able to look at ‘private and intimate’ photos of the woman.

It was claimed the woman entered Mendy’s bedroom and he told her ‘I just want to look at you, I'll give you the phone back if you take your clothes off’.

Mr Cray alleged: “She does. She takes her clothes off leaving her underwear on. She said he’s throwing her onto the bed as she gets over to get the phone he gets behind her and he rapes her.”

In January 2021, Mendy allegedly sexually assaulted a woman in her mid 20s during a house party by “grabbing her vagina over her clothing” in his kitchen.

Mr Cray said: “She says she felt unable to leave the address as she was reliant on her friend driving her home.

“Later on she said Mendy looked at her, gestured towards her and was using his hand and tongue to make a reference to oral sex.

“He approached her and asked why she seemed angry and she replied it’s because of how he touched her earlier and apparently he apologised.”

Mendy is then accused of raping a woman in her early 20s and two women in their late teens after a pool party at his house in July 2021. The woman in her early 20s, who alleged she was offered money by Saha to stay at Mendy’s house, claims she was raped in the cinema room at his house.

Mr Cray said: “Mendy says to her ‘Lets go downstairs and look at the pool and the gym’, which takes her away from the main body of the party. She seems to have known something is up because she tells a friend ‘if I’m not back in five or ten minutes please come looking for me’.”

The court heard they went to the cinema room and started kissing but “straight away” Mendy took his shorts off and the alleged victim claims she told him she didn’t want to have sex with him.

“Don’t move, don’t move”

Mr Cray said: “That was not putting Mendy off, he persisted in his demands she should have sex with him. She effectively submitted to it. He kept on saying ‘Do it, do it’.”

The court heard the woman’s friend did go looking for her but she alleged she couldn’t get downstairs because two of Mendy’s “associates” were blocking the stairs.

One of the women in their late teens claimed she woke up on the sofa to find Mendy holding her arms behind her back, allegedly raping her saying ‘Don’t move, don’t move’.

The other woman in her late teens told the court she also woke to find Mendy raping her as she slept in a guest bedroom and only stopped when she told him she was on her period.

Saha is also accused of sexually assaulting the woman in her early 20s and allegedly raping one of the same women in her late teens who claims she was also raped by Mendy at the party.

The woman in her early 20s claims to have been in Mendy’s Mercedes with Saha after he gave them £150 to get more drinks from a local Co–op and claims Saha ‘touched her legs’.

The 19-year-old claims to have no memory of allegedly being raped by Saha, but his DNA was later found in her underwear, the court heard.

Saha is then accused of raping and sexually assaulting the same 19-year-old a few weeks later after night outs in Manchester, the court heard.

The teenager was said to have been feeling lightheaded after inhaling a nitrous oxide balloon at Saha’s flat when he “started to touch her leg and pull her skirt up” before raping her, she claimed before the court.

The next day the teenager allegedly went to The Spinney and was in the cinema room with Saha – where she claims he touched her legs and bottom while she was trying to book a taxi home.

Mendy is then accused of two counts of rape against a 17-year-old girl in the downstairs office of his house after a night out in August 2021.

“Can’t get away”

Saha is alleged to have also raped the teenager on the same evening as Mendy.

Mr Cray claimed: “She says she wants to leave but she just can’t get away.”

It is alleged Saha then took the woman to his flat and raped her again. Saha is also accused of rape and sexual assault dating back to 2012.

The court heard his first alleged victim, a teenager, was raped after a date to Nando’s in the summer of 2012 but no complaint was made at the time.

He is then accused of sexually assaulting another teenager in Sheffield in 2016 and again no complaint was made at the time.

Saha is also accused of raping a 19-year-old after a party at the rented Salford flat in March 2021.

Mr Cray claimed: “She woke up in a different room in a state of total disarray. She actually believed that she had wet herself, that she had urinated as she lay there and had no memory at all.”

He is also accused of sexually assaulting and raping a 17-year-old at the Salford flat in April 2021, allegedly touching the teenager’s vagina and raping her as she slept.

The trial continues.

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