Ex-Manchester City footballer cleared of rape charges

Ex-Manchester city football player Benjamin Mendy broke down in tears when the jury at Chester Brown court cleared him of all rape and rape-attempt charges.

Benjamin Mendy was charged with attacking and raping a 24-year-old woman at his home in Mottram St Andrew, Cheshire in October 2020. He was also accused of attempting to rape another woman who said the footballer had molested her at his residence two years ago.

Earlier, the player was cleared of six rape charges and one rape-attempt charge, related to four young women. But the jury failed to reach to a decision in cases of one rape case and one attempted rape charge.

The 24-year-old complainant told the jury that the footballer took her phone that contained intimate pictures, when she went to get the phone back, Mendy took her to bed and raped her despite her telling that she did not want to have sex. The footballer denied having raped the woman and said that she agreed to play around in the bed.

The jury comprising six men and six women deliberated for more than three hours before giving the verdict. After the jury decision, Judge Steven Everett ordered to discharge Mendy from the dock.