Woman felt ‘out of control’ during encounter with Benjamin Mendy, court hears

A woman has described how she thought about screaming when she was allegedly sexually assaulted by Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy in his mansion but believed “there’s no point as he’s in his own territory”.

A jury at Chester Crown Court watched a recorded interview with the woman, now 32 years old, who is the first of seven women who have made allegations against the 28-year-old French international to give evidence in his trial.

In the interview, played on Wednesday, the woman told a police officer how Mendy, wearing just his boxer shorts, walked into an en-suite bathroom as she was naked in the shower at his house.

She had stayed the night with one of his friends following a night out in October 2018.

She said: “So he walked in and, out of shock, I said, ‘You need to leave’.

“I saw him hold himself in his private area.”

The woman said she managed to wrap a towel around herself and grab some underwear but Mendy snatched it off her, she said.

“He just did not want me to have clothes.

“He kept obstructing me.

“I kept pushing him away, he kept grabbing me back.”

The woman continued: “He sat on the bed and put me on top of him.”

She described how she was desperately trying to cling on to her towel as Mendy took off his boxer shorts and pulled her towards him.

She said: “I just kept trying to wriggle out.

“He got very close but I pushed him away as much as I could.”

The woman told the officer she kept thinking: “Why is this happening?

“Shall I scream?

“There’s no point as he’s in his own territory.”

She said: “I pretty much landed myself in that situation because I shouldn’t have gone up there (to Manchester).”

The woman explained how she had met Mendy a year before, in a club in Barcelona, but she had been much