Dylan Bettencourt
The French international Benjamin Mendy has been found not guilty at the Chester Crown Court of raping a 19-year-old woman in July last year.
However, the suspended Manchester City footballer remains on trial for seven other counts of rape and sexual abuse.
Mendy’s co-accused, Louis Saha Mattuire, was found not guilty of two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault against the same woman.
Judge Stephen Everett instructed the jury to clear the defendants of those counts after the prosecution offered no further evidence, the BBC reported.
The judge warned the jury to not speculate as to why the prosecution took the decision to not pursue the guilty verdicts.
Judge Everett added that the jury should continue to faithfully try the defendants on the other charges.
The jury were also told of a private video of the same woman having “enthusiastic sex” with Mattuire before claiming she was raped.
Prosecutors, however, still claimed that Mendy was a “predator” who “turned the pursuit of women for sex into a game.”
Mattuire is said to be hired by Mendy to find women for sex.
He has denied six counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault relating to seven different women.
Both men said the sex they had with the women was consensual.
Image source: @AndyKelvin
