CHESTER, United Kingdom —
An English court on Monday heard that
Manchester City and France footballer
Benjamin Mendy, on trial for rape and sexual assault, was a “predator” who
callously pursued vulnerable women.
اضافة اعلان
Mendy, 28, is on trial at Chester Crown Court in
northwest England, facing eight counts of rape, one count of sexual assault and
one count of attempted rape, relating to seven young women.
The Premier League star has pleaded not guilty to
all the charges in a complex trial that is expected to last 15 weeks.
The jury trial opened last week and the prosecution
began their opening arguments on Monday.
Prosecutor Timothy Cray told the court that Mendy
and his co-defendant, Louis Saha Matturie, were “predators, who were prepared
to commit serious sexual offences” as they pursued women.
Cray alleged that Mendy behaved with “callous
indifference” to women who were “vulnerable, scared, isolated”.
Matturie’s job was “to find young women and to
create the situations where those young women could be raped and sexually
assaulted”, he argued.
The men “turned the pursuit of women for sex into a
game and if women got hurt or distressed, too bad,” the lawyer said.
The alleged offences are said to have taken place
between July 2012 and August last year.
Matturie, 40, has also pleaded not guilty to eight
counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault.
None of the women said to have been assaulted can be
named under English law, which also places restrictions on what can be reported
about the case.
Mendy joined
Premier League champions City from
French side Monaco in 2017. He has played 75 times for Manchester City, but his
playing time was limited by injuries and a loss of form.
He was suspended by City after being charged by
police in August last year.
The last of Mendy’s 10 international caps came in
November 2019. The defender picked up a World Cup winner’s medal after playing
just 40 minutes of France’s successful 2018 campaign in Russia.
The trial comes as
former Manchester United star player and Wales manager Ryan Giggs is on trial
at Manchester Crown Court on charges of assaulting his former partner by
headbutting her and submitting her to controlling and coercive behavior.
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