Benjamin Mendy was 'predator' who raped women in his mansion 'with special locking doors', court hears

Benjamin Mendy is a "predator" who used a "fixer" friend to rape and sexually attack women, a jury was today told.

The Manchester City defender, 28, is on trial at Chester Crown Court accused of eight counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault. He denies all charges.

Co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie, 40, has also pleaded not guilty to eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault, relating to eight women.

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Opening the trial, Timothy Cray, QC, prosecuting, said it was "another chapter in a very old story: men who rape and sexually assault women".

He said: "The prosecution case is simple. It has little to do with football. Instead, we say, it is another chapter in a very old story: men who rape and sexually assault women, because they think they are powerful, and because they think they can get away with it."

Mr Cray said the feeling of the alleged victims "counted for nothing". He added: "These women were disposable: things to be used for sex, then thrown to one side. That was the effect of deliberate, planned choices the defendants made, and the desires they let loose many times."

Mendy, a France international, is alleged to have committed the offences against seven young women between October 2018 and August last year. His co-accused Matturie, of Eccles, Salford, is accused of offences relating to eight young women.

Mr Cray told the jury Mendy was a "reasonably famous football player" who "because of his wealth and status, others were prepared to help him to get what he wanted".

The prosecutor said Matturie was Mendy's friend and fixer and one of his jobs was "to find young women and to create the