Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy was described by prosecutors as a “predator” who couldn’t take no for a solution because the trial started Monday of the French soccer participant accused of eight counts of rape.
Mendy additionally has been accused of 1 depend of tried rape and one depend of sexual assault. He is alleged to have dedicated the offenses towards seven younger ladies between October 2018 and August final 12 months.
He denies the costs. Timothy Cray, the lawyer for the prosecution, opened the trial at Chester Crown Court in northwest England by telling the jury: “The prosecution case is simple. It has little to do with football. Instead, we say, 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.”
Mendy is standing trial with Louis Saha Matturie, who denies eight counts of rape and 4 counts of sexual assault referring to eight younger ladies.The alleged offenses span from July 2012 to August final 12 months.
Cray mentioned Saha was Mendy’s buddy and fixer, and certainly 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 acts that the defendants did together show a callous indifference to the women they went after,” Cray instructed the court docket. “In their minds, and this could not be clearer, the stream of women they brought to their homes existed purely to be pursued for sex, ” Cray instructed jurors they may hear from 13 completely different ladies.
“Our case is that the defendants’ pursuit of these 13 women turned them into predators, who were prepared to commit serious sexual offenses,” Cray mentioned.
He mentioned “the fact they would not take no’ for an answer” could be one thing the jurors will “hear time and time again.” Mendy has performed for City since 2017 after becoming a member of from Monaco. He was suspended by the membership after being charged by police.
Both defendants are on bail and the trial is predicted to last as long as 15 weeks
