French footballer Benjamin Mendy, accused of seven rapes in England, released on bail – Liberation

The world champion defender, in pre-trial detention since August 2021, was released on bail this Friday afternoon. His trial, originally scheduled for January 24, is expected to take place on June 27 or August 1.

Manchester City’s French international defender Benjamin Mendy, accused of seven rapes and a sexual assault, was released and placed under judicial supervision Friday by British justice. Judge Patrick Thompson decided during a hearing before the Crown Court of Chester (north-west of England) to release the 27-year-old player, world champion in 2018, who had been in pre-trial detention since the end of August. His trial, originally scheduled for January 24, is expected to take place on June 27 or August 1.

The maximum sentence he faces, if he pleads not guilty, is life. If this sentence remains unlikely, a conviction would however earn him several years behind bars and an immediate end to his career.

Faced with seven counts of rape and one of sexual assault

The French international is targeted by seven counts of rape on four women and one count of sexual assault on a fifth, for facts which would extend between October 2020 and August 2021. The case had started at the end of August when the Manchester City club announced the player’s suspension without further explanation.

English justice then quickly announced that the player had been placed in pre-trial detention after being accused of four rapes – including one committed a few days earlier, while he was on parole – and a sexual assault, by three women including a minor. These first facts would have taken place at his home in Prestbury, Cheshire.

On his arrival at City, Mendy was however seen as one of the great French and world hopes for the position of left back. Trained in Le Havre, revealed in Marseille and spent a season with Monaco, Mendy became the most expensive defender in history when the Citizens did not hesitate to pay 52 million pounds (about 61 million euros) for his attach its services, in 2017.

Benjamin Mendy is already known to British justice. In the fall of 2020, his Lamborghini, worth more than 500,000 euros, had been seized, arousing the mocking headlines of the English tabloids. And for good reason, the player had neither license nor insurance to drive it. He then pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a fine of just over 1,000 euros.

Update : Friday, January 7 at 4:20 p.m., reminder of the charges