Benjamin Mendy: trial told woman allegedly raped by Man City footballer ‘looked like she had seen a ghost’

A young woman “looked like she had seen a ghost” moments after emerging from a bedroom where footballer Benjamin Mendy allegedly raped her three times, her friend has told a court.

The friend said she had gone to look for the woman, who she regarded “like a sister”, after she had gone missing with Mendy for around 20 minutes during a party at the Manchester City star’s mansion in Cheshire.

Prosecutors allege Mendy is a “predator” who “turned the pursuit of women for sex into a game”.

Mendy, 28, denies eight counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault against seven young women.

Co-accused Louis Saha Matturie, 41, of Eccles, Salford, denies eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault relating to eight young women.

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

What did the witness tell the court?

The witness told Chester Crown Court she found her friend coming downstairs from an upstairs bedroom.

Timothy Cray QC, prosecuting asked the friend: “How did she look to you?”

The witness replied: “She looked like she had seen a ghost. She looked blank. She looked dead.”

Moments later the rape complainant told her friend she was “very keen” to leave and go home, the trial heard.

When they got to her home, the woman told her friend she was “fine” and tried “brushing off” the incident, the witness said.

But she also talked about “being in a situation where you don’t want to do something, feel pressured so you just go along with something”, the friend told the jury.

She said that the morning after, the complainant said Mendy had promised not to touch her if she stripped while he looked at her, but then “forced” her down on a bed and raped her.

Earlier the court heard both young women had been among a group of friends who went back to Mendy’s home, in Mottram St Andrew, Cheshire, after drinks at a nearby bar on 11 October, 2020.

They had been told not to use their phones at Mendy’s home due to sensitivities to social media photos and posts and worries about gatherings during the Covid pandemic.

The woman had been scrolling through her phone near a swimming pool when he came over and “snatched” the phone from her to check if she had been taking pictures and posting to social media, the court has been told.

She said she asked for it back but the footballer led her to an upstairs bedroom where the alleged rape took place despite her telling him she did not want sex.

The trial continues.