Football
Benjamin Mendy denies seven counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault. Louis Saha Matturie denies six counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault. Warning: This article contains descriptions of a distressing nature
Monday 26 September 2022 20:11, UK
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A woman who claims she was raped by Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy told police she had no sexual contact with his team-mate Jack Grealish.
England international Grealish, 27, was among partygoers at Mendy’s mansion in Prestbury, Cheshire, in August last year when the 17-year-old complainant says she was attacked by Mendy, 28, and co-accused Louis Saha Matturie, 41.
Mendy and Matturie are on trial at Chester Crown Court where they deny multiple sex offences against a string of young women.
Last week the court heard the 17-year-old said to police that a 23-year-old woman, who also alleges Matturie raped her, told her on the night she had sex with Grealish.
On Monday, in further police interviews she said Matturie also mentioned to her the woman had “been together” with the former Aston Villa midfielder.
Three or four of Grealish’ friends from Birmingham came to the party after she earlier arrived in a taxi which followed a Range Rover in which Grealish was a passenger, she said.
The complainant said his friends were “quite pleasant” and “quite normal”, and there was “nothing suggestive or weird” in their conversations.
Grealish went on to compliment her “beautiful eyes” as she entered the swimming pool at the mansion and he walked out.
She said she replied: “Thank you.”
Later she saw Grealish “fast asleep” in the house.
She told detectives: “I remember him being quite drunk.”
The woman said she had not previously met Grealish and only “knew of him just off the TV”.
She said the footballer and his friends did not do anything that made her feel uncomfortable.
She confirmed to police that she did not have any sexual contact with Grealish.
The detective asked: “Have you since that night told anybody if you had any physical contact with him?”
“No,” she replied.
The court heard that days before the woman was invited by Saha to watch a Manchester City match from a private box.
At the time she said she thought Saha was Mendy’s personal assistant or “some kind of entourage, a bodyguard”.
In a text exchange with a friend, Mendy was referred to as “the worst player on the team… guy goes out too much.
“He made us lose against Tottenham.”
Prosecutors claim Mendy is a “predator” who “turned the pursuit of women for sex into a game”.
Matturie, his friend and “fixer”, allegedly had the job of finding young women for sex.
Mendy denies seven counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault against six young women.
Matturie, of Eccles, Salford, denies six counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault relating to seven young women.
Both men say, if any sex did take place with women or girls, it was consensual.
The trial was adjourned until Tuesday morning.
© 2022 Sky UK
