Manchester City's Benjamin Mendy released on bail

sport
Manchester City's Benjamin Mendy Released On Bail
The French international has been in custody for 134 days. Photo: PA Images
Share this article

Pat Hurst, PA

Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has been freed on bail ahead of his trial on rape charges.

Mendy (27), accused of a series of serious sex offences against young women, was freed after a bail hearing at Chester Crown Court on Friday.

Advertisement

The French international has been in custody for 134 days, since first being arrested and charged on August 26th last year.

Advertisement

 

The footballer, held at HMP Altcourse, Liverpool before recently being transferred to HMP Manchester, was granted bail by Judge Patrick Thompson at a private hearing from which the press was excluded, while bail was discussed.

The defendant had been due to go on trial this month, but the trial has been put back to June 27th at the earliest.

After bail had been discussed between lawyers for Mendy and the judge, reporters were allowed back into court.

Advertisement

Judge Thompson granted Mendy bail until January 24th, the date of his next court hearing.

The full bail conditions were not given in open court, but Mendy was told he must live at his home address, not to contact complainants and surrender his passport by midnight on Friday.

Mendy, wearing a black suit and white shirt, replied “OK” to the judge.

Advertisement
Benjamin Mendy court case
Manchester City’s Benjamin Mendy had been held in HMP Altcourse

The defendant, of Withinlee Road, Prestbury, Cheshire, is accused of eight offences against five different women, including seven counts of rape relating to four women and one count of sexual assault.

The charges are three counts of rape, alleged to have happened on October 11th, 2020; sexual touching on January 2nd, 2021; two counts of rape on July 24th, 2021 and two counts of rape on August 23rd, 2021.

Mendy sat in the dock alongside his co-defendant, Louis Saha Matturie, of Eccles, Greater Manchester.

Advertisement

Matturie (40) is accused of six counts of rape and one of sexual assault.

Ian Unsworth QC, prosecuting, told the court that on Thursday further charges of one count of rape and one count of sexual assault were authorised for Matturie.

He will appear in court next week on the additional charges.

Benjamin Mendy File Photo
Manchester City’s Benjamin Mendy during a Premier League match. Photo: PA Images

None of the women involved, as complainants of alleged sex offences, can be identified.

A decision on the application for bail by Matturie has yet to be made.

Mendy has played for Manchester City since 2017, when he joined from Monaco for a reported £52 million (€62.2 million).

He was suspended by the club after being charged by police, pending an investigation

Read More

Message submitting... Thank you for waiting.

Want us to email you top stories each lunch time?

Download our Apps
© BreakingNews.ie 2024, developed by Square1 and powered by PublisherPlus.com