- On Sports
A jury in the UK on Friday cleared Manchester City and France footballer Benjamin Mendy of six counts of rape and one of sexual assault against four women, following a six-month trial.
The seven men and four women on the panel failed to reach verdicts on a seventh charge of rape and one of attempted rape.
Prosecutors said afterwards that they would seek a retrial on those counts.
Mendy, 28, who denied all nine counts involving six women, covered his face with both hands, gently rocking back and forth, as the verdicts were delivered.
Judge Steven Everett immediately set a new trial start date of June 26 for the two counts which the jury could not agree on.
Mendy was accused alongside Louis Saha Matturie, 41, an alleged “fixer”, who 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.
The prosecution had alleged that Mendy was a sexual “predator” who raped or sexually assaulted young women procured by Matturie, at parties at his luxury home.
Mendy has denied ever forcing any woman into sex and both said any sexual activity they had with women was consensual.
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