Ex-Man City footballer Benjamin Mendy has been cleared of one count of rape and one count of attempted rape following a retrial.
The Frenchman was accused of attacking two women at his mansion during the COVID pandemic. However, Mendy continued to deny charges against him.
Mendy was found not guilty by a jury of six men and six women at Chester Crown Court. He said the encounters had been consensual. Earlier this year, the footballer had been found not guilty of sexual offences against several women, but the jury was unable to reach verdicts on the two charges.
At his retrial, prosecutors said Mendy would host parties and social gatherings at his home while he was under contract with Man City.
The defender met a British student in a nightclub in Barcelona in 2017, she became Mendy’s close friend and visited him regularly. However, after a night out she alleged that Mendy tried to rape her.
How Benjamin Mendy’s career took a U-turn after signing for Man City
The full-back became the Premier League’s most expensive defender when City paid £52m to Monaco for him in 2017. He won three titles with City and was part of France’s World Cup-winning squad in 2018.
However, he was released by the club when his contract expired at the end of June.
In 2019, a woman was out with friends at a bar near Mendy’s home when they were invited back to the footballer’s house. She alleged he took her phone from her and led her to a locked bedroom.
Mendy threw the phone onto a bed, and as she went to retrieve it, Mendy is alleged to have raped her. Mendy told the jury the two had a consensual sexual encounter and later swapped details on Snapchat.
Benjamin Mendy told the jury: “I will never force to have sex with a woman.”
