Benjamin Mendy: Player's fixer cleared of sex-assault charges

The CPS has declined to try Louis Saha Matturie for a third time

A friend and "fixer" for ex-Man City player Benjamin Mendy has been cleared of sex offences against young women.

Louis Saha Matturie, 42, part of the player's entourage, had to face a retrial at Chester Crown Court.

Both men had been on trial together, accused of sexual offences but were found not guilty of most charges in January after a six-month trial.

Retrials were ordered on the outstanding charges, those on which the jury could not agree verdicts.

Mr Mendy, 29, now playing for French Ligue 1 club Lorient, was cleared of all charges after his retrial in July.

Mr Matturie, who was not in court, was cleared of three counts of rape relating to two teenagers at the first trial.

He was accused of two counts of rape and two of sexual assault involving three different women, aged 19, 17 and 22, at his retrial.

Last week he was cleared of all charges but one, following a three-week trial

Benjamin Aina KC, prosecuting, said earlier that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to pursue a third prosecution after the jury failed to reach a verdict on an outstanding count of sexual assault.

Judge Steven Everett recorded a not guilty verdict to the outstanding count.

The 19-year-old woman alleged that she had been to a party in March 2021 and had blacked out after drinking alcohol and inhaling nitrous oxide balloons. She said she woke up on a mattress in Mr Matturie's bedroom at his flat in Salford with the defendant raping her.

Around a month later the 17-year-old claimed she too had been at Mr Matturie's flat and woke up to him sexually assaulting and raping her.

In July 2021 the third woman, then aged 22, said she had been to a party at Mr Mendy's £4.5m mansion The Spinney, in Mottram-St-Andrew, Cheshire.

She alleged Mr Matturie insisted she come with him to drive to a local shop to buy alcohol and on the way back he tried to kiss her and sexually assaulted her in the car.

Both Mr Matturie and Mr Mendy maintained throughout their trials that any sexual activity with women was always consensual.

Text messages

The end of the trial has also seen the lifting of restrictions on the publication of text messages between Mr Mendy and Mr Matturie, which the defence had successfully argued should be inadmissable to the jury because they would have been "highly prejudicial".

At Mr Mendy's first trial prosecutors had argued that the messages revealed the true picture of the men's "misogynistic" and "hateful" attitude to women.

In the messages women were described as "bitches" while the two men discussed what to do with them, according to newly released evidence.

Timothy Cray KC, prosecuting, argued the messages showed "entrenched" and "reckless" attitudes to women.

But Eleanor Laws KC, defending Mr Mendy, successfully opposed the jury seeing the messages.

Ruling the messages inadmissible, Judge Everett said that all "right thinking" people would disapprove of the messages, which did the defendants "no credit".

But he added: "A lot of the issues in this case are not whether they had entrenched views about sex but whether they had consent."

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to [e-mail]