Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has been pictured for the first time since being released from prison on bail wearing an electronic ankle tag.
The France defender, 27, who is accused of seven rapes and one sexual assault, was ordered to wear an electronic tag and report to a police station daily as part of his bail conditions.
He was released from HMP Manchester, better known as Strangeways, earlier this month after Judge Patrick Thompson granted him bail at a private hearing at Chester Crown Court, with press excluded from the courtroom.
Mendy is accused of eight offences against five different women, including seven counts of rape relating to four women. And the sexual assault of another alleged victim.
He allegedly raped a woman while he was on police bail in August, before entering custody in September for 134 days.
Mendy, who has been ordered to spend six months under house arrest at his £4.8 million property in Prestbury, Cheshire, had been due to go on trial this month, but it has now been put back to June at the earliest. He has been bailed until Monday, until a further pre-trial hearing.
Mendy was pictured on Thursday leaving Macclesfield Police station wearing an electronic tag on his left ankle, after being driven by a chauffeur from his mansion.
Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has been pictured for the first time since being released from prison on bail wearing an electronic ankle tag. He was seen leaving Macclesfield police station after reporting to the police as part of his bail conditions
The France defender, 27, who is accused of seven rapes and one sexual assault, was ordered to wear an electronic tag and report to a police station daily as part of his bail conditions. He was pictured on Thursday with his tag underneath his socks
Mendy was pictured on Thursday leaving Macclesfield Police station wearing an electronic tag on his left ankle, after being driven by a chauffeur from his mansion
Mendy had been due to go on trial this month, but it has now been put back to June at the earliest. He has been bailed until January 24, until a further pre-trial hearing
An onlooker told The Sun: ‘This blacked out people carrier pulled up outside the police station right outside the door and this guy just jumped out.
‘He had his hood up and a mask on and walked quickly in.
‘He was only in for about a minute and then came out, jumped back into the van and they zoomed off.’
The Premier League star, who signed for Manchester City for £52million on £90,000-a-week, had been held at HMP Altcourse, Liverpool, before being transferred to HMP Manchester just before Christmas.
He was later granted bail earlier this month, with Judge Thompson telling him he will be the subject of ‘stringent’ conditions while on bail.
Mendy was pictured leaving Macclesfield Police station on Thursday and walking to a black car
Mendy was driven to the police station on Thursday by a chauffeur
The France international was granted bail on January 7 after an application by his defence team at Chester Crown Court.
Judge Patrick Thompson made the decision after declining a prosecution request to extend Mendy’s custody time limit.
Mendy was told will be the subject of ‘stringent’ conditions while on bail.
The allegations against him include three counts of rape, alleged to have happened on 11 October 2020, a sexual assault on 2 January 2021, one count of rape on 24 July 2021 and two counts of rape on 23 August 2021.
In December, Mendy was charged with a further count of rape in July, last year.
Co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie, 40, of Edwin Court, Eccles, was already charged with six counts of rape and one sexual assault.
The charges relate to four complainants over the age of 16 and are alleged to have taken place between March 2021 and August 2021.
But Ian Unsworth QC, prosecuting, said that fresh charges of rape and sexual assault has been authorised and Matturie would appear in court on those matters in due course.
The two new charges relate to an existing complainant.
Mendy and Matturie were due to face trial later this month but the date has provisionally been rescheduled to June 27.
Benjamin Mendy is pictured on August 12 out with his teammates at The Ivy in Manchester
Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy (left) appearing at Manchester Magistrates Court in December charged with two additional counts of rape, after initially being charged in August with four counts of rape. He is pictured with Louis Saha Matturie who is accused of sexually touching a woman in Sheffield in 2016, raping a woman in March this year and another count of rape in Macclesfield in July
Mendy’s co-accused, Louis Saha Matturie, 40, of Eccles, Greater Manchester, (left at court in September, right previously)
Both men will next appear in court on January 24.
Mendy joined Manchester City from Monaco in 2017 for a reported £52million
City suspended the left-back in August pending an investigation.
The club said in a statement at the time: ‘The matter is subject to a legal process and the club is therefore unable to make further comment until that process is complete.’
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