Benjamin Mendy trial: footballer found not guilty of one count of rape - latest updates as case continues

Benjamin Mendy has been found not guilty of the rape of a woman on the direction of the judge at his trial.

The 28-year-old Manchester City footballer Mendy was cleared of the rape of a woman at his home in Prestbury, Cheshire on 24 July last year.

His co-accused, Louis Saha Matturie, 41, was also cleared of two counts of rape and one of sexual assault against the same woman after the prosecution offered no further evidence against the defendants on those four counts.

Matturie wiped tears from his eyes as he stood in the dock and the formal not guilty verdicts, as directed by the judge, were given by the foreman of the jury at Chester Crown Court.

Mendy denies seven counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault against six women.

Matturie of Eccles, Salford, still denies six counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault relating to seven women.

Both men say if any sex did take place it was consensual.

What happened in court?

Earlier, jurors were told of a private video of the woman having “enthusiastic sex” with Matturie, when she claimed she had been raped.

The video was taken by Matturie on 1 August last year, the court heard, a week after both men had allegedly raped the same woman on the same night the previous weekend at the footballer’s mansion.

The woman had told the jury Matturie sexually assaulted her for a second time at a flat in Salford on 1 August last year, after clubbing at a nightclub in Manchester.

The hearing was then adjourned and when court resumed after lunch time, Timothy Cray QC, prosecuting, told the court the prosecution was not now seeking guilty verdicts on alleged sexual offences involving the complainant.

Jurors were then directed to enter not guilty verdicts against the defendants.

The trial was adjourned until Wednesday morning.