Mendy 'made kidnap joke' before 'attacking woman' - "he kept pulling me down"

Benjamin Mendy allegedly joked he would "kidnap" a woman he was partying with in a Manchester nightclub before he attempted to rape her at his house the next day, a court heard.

The jury at Chester Crown Court heard details on the third day of the Manchester City defender's trial of his alleged attack on a 29-year-old woman in October 2018, for which he is charged with attempted rape.

The woman had met Mendy and a friend a year prior. She told police she liked one of Mendy's friends, but Mendy took a liking to her. She then travelled to Manchester the following year to meet Mendy's friend at the footballer's house.

She joined Mendy, his friends and others at a restaurant where they played drinking games before heading to two nightclubs. The woman was with Mendy's friend at the second of the clubs when Mendy is claimed to have told her: "When he is not looking, I'm going to kidnap you." The woman told police during her statement made years later at Walworth Police Station in January 2022: "I thought he was joking."

She said she was "drunk but aware" by the time she eventually returned to Mendy's home in Cheshire, known as The Spinney, later that evening. The following morning she claims Mendy suggested she get a phone charger from his room, but she declined as she "had her own". Then she claims she was taking a shower upstairs in the room she was staying in with the door ajar "so she could hear", believing everyone else to be downstairs. She was "completely nude" and had music playing, when Mendy is alleged to have walked into the bathroom.

The woman claims she saw Mendy enter the room "out the corner of my eye" and told him "he had to leave" but he "held himself in his private area". She wrapped herself in a towel and tried to grab some underwear "to protect myself", but claims Mendy "kept obstructing me", as she alleges there was a continued back and forth for around 20 minutes.

"He kept forcing himself to see me and take off my towel," the woman tells the police officer in the video shared with the court. "I kept pushing him away to the point where he kept grabbing me back."

Timothy Cray QC, prosecuting, said the woman told officers: "He pulled his boxers down to his thighs to expose his penis. He pulled her down to the bed and started to sit her down and hold her on his lap."

"I just kept trying to push him off. He kept pulling me down. We fell into the spoon position," the woman says in the video. "That's when he took off his boxers. He had his penis near as if almost to penetrate. He said, 'Don't worry'.

"I just kept trying to wriggle out. He got very close but I pushed him away as much as I could. I just kept thinking, 'Where are his friends? Why are they not here? Should I scream? What am I going to do?"

"I did not scream because I did not understand what was going on," she adds. "I just tried to struggle my way out of it."

The woman told police she did not remember how the situation ended but quickly gathered her things, got dressed and left the house to call a taxi. Mendy then told her he would get a driver to take her. "It was just embarrassing. I just wanted to get out of there."

She did not initially report the incident but had a telephone conversation with her GP in August 2021 where she explained how she'd been feeling "low and anxious" due to something being made public - though she did not want to give further details.

The following day she had a face-to-face appointment with her doctor saying she had not had sexual intercourse since 2018 when she was the victim of an attempted rape and that this was related to the current news story involving Mendy.

Mendy stands accused of eight counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault. He denies all charges.

He is currently standing trial alongside co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie, 41, who has also pled not guilty to charges of eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault between July 2012 and August 2021.

Prosecuting QC Cray told the court on Monday: "Our case is that the defendants' pursuit of these 13 women turned them into predators, who were prepared to commit serious sexual offences. The fact they would not take 'no' for an answer, or that they engineered situations where 'no' was not even an option, is something you will hear time and time again."

The trial is expected to last three months.