Woman denies making up rape claim against friend of Man City's Benjamin Mendy
Mendy and his co-accused deny all the charges against them
Last updated 15th Sep 2022
A young woman has denied making up a rape allegation against a friend and "fixer" for Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy.
The woman, aged 19 at the time of the alleged sexual assault, has told Chester Crown Court she woke up to find Louis Saha Matturie, 41, having sex with her at his flat near Manchester city centre.
She had been to a party in March last year and told friends she could not remember a lot of the evening and blacked out, and said she believed her drinks might have been spiked.
Lisa Wilding KC, representing Matturie, suggested the pair had consensual sex twice, and the rape allegation was made out of "embarrassment" for having sex with an older man.
Ms Wilding said: "Is the truth, the following morning, you had had sex with a man you had only met that night?"
"No," the woman told the jury, "I knew something wrong had happened."
Ms Wilding said the woman had described Matturie to her friends as an "ugly" older man with "wrinkles", and had suggested her drink might have been spiked because she was "embarrassed" about what had happened.
Ms Wilding continued: "I suggest you did say these things and said them because you wanted your friends to think you would not have had sex with him.
"Were you trying to justify to your friends why you would not have had sex with Saha, because you didn't find him attractive?
"Were you trying to justify to yourself you had not consented because he was not your type?"
The woman replied: "No."
She has admitted being "quite drunk" at Matturie's flat and drinking while also taking medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Around three weeks later, on April 8 last year, Matturie is alleged to have also raped the woman's 17-year-old friend at the flat, despite the woman warning the teenager not to go back to his home.
Timothy Cray KC, prosecuting, asked the witness: "Why did you tell her not to go back to the flat?"
The woman replied: "Because, obviously, I knew what type of man he was."
Prosecutors allege Mendy is a "predator" who "turned the pursuit of women for sex into a game", while Matturie is alleged to have had the job of finding young women for sex.
Mendy denies seven counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault against six young women.
Matturie of Eccles, Salford, denies six counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault relating to seven young women.
Both men say if any sex did take place with women or girls it was consensual.
The trial was adjourned until Tuesday next week.