Benjamin Mendy cleared of rape charges

Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy has been cleared of sex attacks on four women, as jurors failed to reach verdicts on two others following a six-month trial.

The 28-year-old, sitting in the dock at Chester Crown Court, covered his face with both hands, gently rocking back and forth, as the jury foreman, delivering the verdicts in a hushed courtroom, repeated "not guilty" to six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, relating to four young women or teenagers.

The unanimous verdicts were delivered on Wednesday by the seven men and four women on the jury, one juror having been discharged earlier for medical reasons.

The verdicts could not be reported until jurors concluded considering the remaining two counts, after they were given a majority direction by Judge Steven Everett, meaning he would accept a 10-1 majority on any verdict.

But after 14 days of deliberation, jurors could not reach verdicts on Mendy's alleged attempted rape of a woman, 29, in 2018 and the rape of another woman, 24, in October 2020.

Judge Everett discharged the jury on Friday, ending the trial.

Any decision on a re-trial on those outstanding charges is pending.

Louis Saha Matturie, 41, his co-accused and alleged "fixer" was found not guilty by the jury of three counts of rape relating to two teenagers.

Jurors also failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault against him by five other women.

Both had been on trial since 10 August, accused of multiple sexual offences by 13 women.

The allegations and trial had been "absolute hell" for Mendy, the court heard, and his life in football "is over" as he would "never escape" the accusations.

Mendy had been accused of being a "predator" who turned the pursuit of women