Benjamin Mendy trial: woman denies making up rape claim against footballer’s friend Louis Saha Matturie

A woman told a court she did not make up a rape allegation against Benjamin Mendy’s friend Louis Saha Matturie.

The woman has told Chester Crown Court she woke up to find Louis Saha Matturie, 41, raping her at his flat near Manchester city centre.

Both Mendy and Matturie are on trial facing charges of rape and sexual assault.

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

Matturie of Eccles, Salford, 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 did the woman say in her evidence?

She had been to a party in March last year and told friends she could not remember a lot of the evening and blacked out, and said she believed her drinks might have been spiked.

Lisa Wilding KC, representing Matturie, suggested the pair had consensual sex twice, and the rape allegation was made out of “embarrassment” for having sex with an older man.

Ms Wilding said: “Is the truth, the following morning, you had had sex with a man you had only met that night?”

“No,” the woman told the jury, “I knew something wrong had happened.”

Ms Wilding said the woman had described Matturie to her friends as an “ugly” older man with “wrinkles”, and had suggested her drink might have been spiked because she was “embarrassed” about what had happened.

Ms Wilding continued: “I suggest you did say these things and said them because you wanted your friends to think you would not have had sex with him.

“Were you trying to justify to your friends why you would not have had sex with Saha, because you didn’t find him attractive?

“Were you trying to justify to yourself you had not consented because he was not your type?”

The woman replied: “No.”

Around three weeks later, on 8 April last year, Matturie is alleged to have also raped the woman’s friend at the flat, despite the woman warning her not to go back to his home.

Timothy Cray KC, prosecuting, asked the witness: “Why did you tell her not to go back to the flat?”

The woman replied: “Because, obviously, I knew what type of man he was.”

The trial was adjourned until Tuesday next week.