Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has today pleaded not guilty to nine charges of sexual offences against six women.
The 27-year-old French defender denied seven counts of rape, one count of sexual assault, and one count of attempted rape.
Today, he stood in the dock at Chester Crown Court and repeated ‘not guilty’ as the charges were put to him to enter pleas for the first time.
Mendy’s alleged offences include seven counts of rape relating to four women, one of sexual assault and one of attempted rape.
He will stand trial from July 25 along with his co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie, 40, who faces similar allegations and was also present at the court today.
Matturie, of Eccles, Salford, is accused of 10 offences involving seven women, including seven counts of rape relating to five women and three of sexual assault.
All the offences are alleged to have taken place at Mendy’s home address and span between October 2018 and August last year. Both men were arrested on August 26 last year. None of the women can be legally identified.
Mendy entered his pleas during a hearing today ahead of his trial, scheduled to begin in July. After this, the hearing went into private session with press excluded.
Mendy was released on bail in January after four months in prison over the alleged sex attacks. He was held at HMP Altcourse in Liverpool before being moved to HMP Manchester – known as Strangeways – last December.
