Benjamin Mendy of Manchester City and France star player appears in court on Monday 7th of November, 2022 as he continued with his sexual assault trial.
While giving his testimony during his rape trial on Monday, Benjamin Mendy said: “I realize I’m not Brad Pitt, but ladies came after me – not for my looks, but because of football.“
The Manchester City defender said before the jury that when he was 18 years old and playing for Marseille in the French first league, ladies began to approach him.
The first time he has testified in court since the trial began in August was on Monday afternoon. The Premier League player claimed that ladies started to be attracted to him when he played in France, but that once he got to England, their attraction to him increased tenfold.
“It became ten times greater at Man City, one of the top teams in Europe,” Mendy told the jury at Chester Crown Court.
On Monday afternoon, Mendy, 28, began testifying in his defense against several alleged sex crimes, including seven rapes.
The £52 million star took an oath using a Quran before responding to his attorney Eleanor Laws KC’s queries while wearing a blue three-piece suit, a white shirt, and a black and white striped tie.
He claimed it was a dream to move for £52 million from Monaco to Premiership champions City in 2017.
The World Cup champion with France claimed that after joining City, he frequented nightclubs two to three times a week to meet ladies, many of whom he afterward invited to his £4.7 million mansion, The Spinney in Prestbury, Cheshire.
“I was enjoying the house, I was enjoying the women,” he told the jurors. “I was so excited and happy to be here. Additionally, I was anticipating the football game.”
Mendy added that he now realizes his actions were “disrespectful” and that he didn’t realize he could harm a woman’s feelings if they both wanted sex.
The celebrity is accused of hosting parties at his secluded property in Cheshire while raping women in “panic rooms.”
Some of his accused victims claim their phones were removed from them when they arrived, which, according to the prosecution, prevented them from dialing 911 for assistance.
Mendy, however, claimed to the court that he would only order them to put down their phones if another football player was around or if he didn’t know them well.
He also discussed his time in detention following his little over four-month confinement following the charge.
Mendy claimed that although he was “upset” at the time, he had “learned a lot about life.”
The footballer, who is now on suspension from City but continues to collect his yearly salary of £4.7 million, claimed to the jury that his daily wage in jail was £4.
“I was making about £4 per day, which I used to spend on meals in the canteen,” he claimed.
“I was being quite cautious for the first time.
“I just bought the life I had before and all I wanted.
“I learned the value of money as a result.”
The testimony from Mr. Mendy will continue on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. He rejects one accusation of attempted rape, one count of sexual assault, and seven counts of rape against four women.
Infractions allegedly occurred at his residence between October 2018 and August 2017 and involve six women.
Louis Saha Matturie, a 41-year-old co-defendant who was allegedly hired as a “fixer” to locate women for sex, is also a defendant in Mendy’s case.
If any sexual activity did occur with women or girls, according to both men, it was consensual.
