The testimony of a woman accusing Benjamin Mendy of grabbing her by the crotch and miming a sexual gesture at a party at his house was broadcast on Tuesday during the footballer’s trial in Chester, in the north from England.
The 28-year-old world champion is charged with eight rapes, an attempted rape and a sexual assault in England, which he denies. The facts allegedly took place between October 2018 and August 2021 at his home in Prestbury, Cheshire. He faces life imprisonment. On Tuesday, the hearing of a woman accusing Benjamin Mendy of grabbing her crotch while he was crossing her was broadcast to the jury.
“I wondered what had just happened”
“He kind of grabbed my vulva and I immediately stopped and thought “What just happened?” “, she told the police. “I think I was just taken aback because I was shocked and then I realized what had just happened,” the woman continued.
She said that a little later, Benjamin Mendy had “made the gesture of (him) make a cunnilingus” while they were in a bathroom. “I don’t understand where it came from because there was little conversation,” she said, explaining that it had “shocked” her. She explained that the footballer had “pulled out his tongue as if he were licking (it)”.
Mendy reportedly asked why the girl was mad at him
She claimed to have then “tried to keep her distance” from Benjamin Mendy, but said he approached her again the same evening, telling her “You are more beautiful when you smile”. The footballer asked her why she was angry, to which she replied: “because of the way you touched me” or “because of what you did”, she told the police, explaining that the footballer then began to apologize.
During this trial, the prosecution presented Benjamin Mendy as a “predator” who abused “vulnerable, terrified and isolated” victims. Last week, an alleged victim of the footballer claimed he tried to get her silence after he raped her three times. He is on trial alongside another man, Louis Saha Matturie -unrelated to former footballer Louis Saha-, prosecuted for eight rapes and four sexual assaults on eight women between July 2012 and August 2021. The latter has he also pleaded not guilty.