Manchester City star Benjamin Mendy has been charged with another count of rape – bringing the total to eight. The French international, 27, will appear in front of a Jury accused of raping seven different women, The Sun UK reports.
He now faces 10 allegations against seven women, including the eight counts of rape against five separate women. Mendy has also been charged with one count of attempted rape against a sixth complainant and one charge of sexual assault against a seventh. The £52million defender is said to have committed all of the alleged crimes at his £5million mansion in Prestbury, Cheshire. He is accused of attacking the women between October 2018 and August last year.Mendy was charged with the new offence in April but an order banning publication has now been lifted at a pre-trial hearing at Chester Crown Court. He pleaded not guilty at a hearing last month to seven rapes and the two other sex offences but has not yet entered a plea to the latest charge. The hearing before trial judge Steven Everett, the Recorder of Chester, dealt with a number of preliminary administrative issues ahead of the trial, which is due to start on July 25. Mendy and his co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie, 40, of Eccles, Gtr Manchester, are on bail. Matturie is charged with eight rapes against six complainants and four counts of sexual assault.Mendy joined Man City from Monaco in 2017 and was suspended by the club after he was charged by police on August 26 last year. He was first arrested on August 28, 2020, and held at HMP Altcourse, Liverpool, before being later transferred to HMP Manchester. But he was freed in January last year following a private bail hearing after being in custody for 134 days. Mendy had originally been due to go on trial in January this year but it was pushed back by nearly seven months. His bail conditions mean he must live at his home address and is not to contact complainants. He must also surrender his passport. Mendy was last seen publicly in May while out jogging.After Mendy was charged, a club spokesman said: “Manchester City can confirm that following his being charged by police today, Benjamin Mendy has been suspended pending an investigation. “The matter is subject to a legal process and the Club is, therefore, unable to make further comment until that process is complete.”
