Benjamin Mendy: Manchester City footballer accused of trying to rape woman after shower - trial latest

A woman has told a court she kept saying “stop” and “no” during an alleged attempted rape by Benjamin Mendy but “wasn’t heard”.

The Manchester City, 28, is accused of the attempted rape of the woman at his home in October 2018.

He also denies eight counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.

His co-accused, Louis Saha Matturie, 41, denies eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault.

Both men deny all charges.

A jury at Chester Crown Court watched a recorded interview with the woman, who is the first of seven women who have made allegations against Mendy to give evidence in his trial.

What did the woman say in her police interview?

In the interview, played to the court on Wednesday, the woman told a police officer how Mendy, wearing just his boxer shorts, walked into an en-suite bathroom as she was naked in the shower at his house.

She had stayed the night with one of his friends following a night out in October 2018.

She said: “So he walked in and, out of shock, I said, ‘You need to leave’.

“I saw him hold himself in his private area.”

The woman said she managed to wrap a towel around herself and grab some underwear but Mendy snatched it off her, she said.

“He just did not want me to have clothes.

“He kept obstructing me.

“I kept pushing him away, he kept grabbing me back.”

The woman continued: “He sat on the bed and put me on top of him.”

She described how she was desperately trying to cling on to her towel as Mendy took off his boxer shorts and pulled her towards him.

She said: “I just kept trying to wriggle out.

“He got very close but I pushed him away as much as I could.”

The woman told the officer she kept thinking: “Why is this happening?

“Shall I scream?

“There’s no point as he’s in his own territory.”

The woman explained how she had met Mendy a year before, in a club in Barcelona, but she had been much more interested in his friend, who was part of his “entourage” and who invited her to the north-west in October 2018.

She said that, on October 24 2018, she travelled up to Manchester to see Mendy’s friend at the footballer’s house in Cheshire.

After arriving they went out to a restaurant in Manchester and were joined by two Brazilian girls and they all enjoyed some drinking games.

Then they went to a club and champagne was ordered before going on to a second nightclub where she was with Mendy’s friend and the footballer approached her.

She said: “At one point he came up to me and said, ‘When he’s not looking, I’m going to kidnap you’.

“I thought he was joking.”

What was said during questioning in court?

Eleanor Laws QC, defending Mendy, asked the witness about a text message she sent to a friend that morning before the alleged attempted rape.

In it the woman had said: “He runs around after me saying, ‘Don’t go’. He wants to f*** me.”

Asked why she had sent it, the woman replied: “Because…he had this predatory look on his face.”

Ms Laws added: “I suggest when you said you did not want to have sex that was the end of it.”

When Ms Laws went on to suggest to her that there was not at any point an attempt at penetration, the woman replied: “Disagree.”

Timothy Cray, prosecuting, asked how she felt during the alleged attack.

She replied: “Out of control.

“I was not in a place familiar to me, I was in a different territory, it was his, he was surrounded by all his friends and I had no one else there.

“I kept saying, ‘Stop’ and ‘No’ but that wasn’t heard.”

The trial was adjourned until Thursday morning.