Benjamin Mendy grabbed woman’s groin at mansion party, court told

A woman said she was “shocked” when Premier League footballer Benjamin Mendy grabbed her groin during a party at his Cheshire mansion, a court has heard.

The alleged victim told Chester Crown Court that the 28-year-old player was “really trying to grab” her between her legs as he passed her during the gathering at his home – The Spinney in Mottram St Andrew – in the early hours of January 2, 2021.

The woman said that, moments after the alleged assault, the Manchester City left-back and former French international made a sexual gesture towards her, the jury was told.

She also alleged that he told her she looked better when she smiled before she challenged him, prompting him to apologise, the court heard.

In an interview with police, played to the jury on Tuesday, the woman said: “He’s sort of just grabbed my vagina and I just immediately stopped and thought ‘What has just happened?’

She later added: “I was just shocked. I think I was just taken aback by it because I was just shocked and then realising what had just happened.”

The court also heard that she immediately went to a bathroom to smoke with her friend but found the door was locked.

She said her friend called for someone to unlock the door, and Mendy came to open it.

The woman said: “I went into the bathroom and we were facing each other … and he’s sort of gestured to giving me oral sex.

“I just sort of turned around and then my friend came in and I told her what happened and she was just shocked, as we both were, and I don’t understand where that came from because there was minimal conversation.”

She later explained: “He gestured as if he was licking us, put his tongue out as if he was licking me.

“I was just confused.”

The court heard that she and her friend considered leaving the party but chose to stay because they were “intoxicated”.

Later, when the woman went to the swimming pool at the house with other party guests, she said she “tried to keep her distance” from Mendy, but claimed he approached her again.

She said: “He came right up close to my face and said ‘You look better when you smile’.”

The woman told a police interviewer that the footballer asked why she was angry, to which she said she responded “because of how you touched me” or “because of what you did”.

The woman claimed he began apologising before trying to “spud” – meaning bump his fist on hers – as a way of smoothing things over.

Mendy denies one count of sexual assault in relation to the incident.

He also denies eight counts of rape and one count of attempted rape against six other young women.

Co-accused Louis Saha Matturie, 41, the footballer’s friend and fixer, allegedly had the job of finding young women for sex.

Both men say that if any sex did take place it was consensual.

The court has previously heard that one woman, who was 20 at the time of the alleged offences, claims she was raped three times by Mendy in October 2020.

Prosecutors allege Mendy is a “predator” who “turned the pursuit of women for sex into a game”.

The trial continues.