Man City star Benjamin Mendy tried to rape young woman after she got out of the shower at his ‘isolated’ mansion, court hears

Manchester City star Benjamin Mendy tried to rape a woman after she got out of a shower at his mansion, a court was told on Tuesday.

Brief details of the alleged attack were mentioned before proceedings were halted due to a faulty speaker.

Footballer Mendy, 28, was accused of being a ‘predator’ who showed ‘callous indifference’ during the hearing on Tuesday.

He denies charges of eight counts of rape, one count of attempted rape, and one count of sexual assault.

His co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie – called ‘Saha’ during proceedings – denies eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault, relating to eight young women. The alleged offences span July 2012 to August last year.

Prosecutor Timothy Cray QC told the court Mendy tried to rape a woman, now aged 29, after she showered in his Cheshire home in October 2018.

Mr. Cray said she went to the police in January this year after the £52m Premier League star’s name was published in the press in connection with other allegations.

The hearing on Tuesday started with a few seconds of video-recorded evidence from the first alleged victim, whose legs were seen shaking.

But the playback had to be halted because the judge was unable to hear it on the court speakers, with the case adjourned for an hour. It later became apparent it could not be fixed quickly and the jury was told to come back on Wednesday.

The court heard allegations that Saha got young women in Manchester nightclub, Chinawhite, before taking them back to the star’s Cheshire mansion to be raped by the pair.

Some of the alleged victims claim they had their phones taken off them when they visited the sprawling and isolated mansion and plied with alcohol in an attempt to make them comply.

Two others said they were locked in ‘panic rooms’ where they were attacked.

The pair – who cannot be named for legal reasons – said Mendy forced himself onto them in the master bedroom and the downstairs office.

Both of them had a special locking mechanism, which created a ‘panic room’ in case of burglary which can only be opened from the inside, not the outside.

A person would have to know how to open the doors to these rooms from the inside, which meant the women believed they had been locked in.

Mendy has played for Manchester City since 2017, when he joined from Monaco for a reported £52 million.

He was suspended by the club after being charged by police.