Benjamin Mendy - Not guilty on re-trial | NOT a thread about MG

Was always the most likely outcome. It's so difficult to get a guilty verdict in a rape case.
 
Are their any details on the verdict? Is it a case of "everybody knows he did it but we can't prove" or is there an actual possibility that he is indeed innocent (not only by law but also by moral)?
 
Chief123 said:
It’s also difficult to get a guilty verdict when a person is not guilty.
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Gosh doesn't it just suck when you get accused of it by multiple women and you've actually done zero things wrong. What bad luck.
 
There was only two charges. I could've sworn there were many more women who came forward.
 
Solius said:
Gosh doesn't it just suck when you get accused of it by multiple women and you've actually done zero things wrong. What bad luck.
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That's why I have doubts as well. I mean, it is not entirely impossible that you get accused by multiple persons and are still innocent but the odds are definitely smaller. How many has he been accused by?
 
So he's now clear of all charges? What next you have to wonder, he should really be able to resume his career.
 
Chief123 said:
It’s also difficult to get a guilty verdict when a person is not guilty.
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There's a reason the verdicts in trials are always labelled "not guilty" rather than "innocent".
 
Zehner said:
That's why I have doubts as well. I mean, it is not entirely impossible that you get accused by multiple persons and are still innocent but the odds are definitely smaller. How many has he been accused by?
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I think it was initially 4 women and one other who claimed to have been sexually assaulted.
 
Zehner said:
Are their any details on the verdict? Is it a case of "everybody knows he did it but we can't prove" or is there an actual possibility that he is indeed innocent (not only by law but also by moral)?
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In some of the cases video evidence and text messages were used to show the claims against Mendy were not credible.

From the guardian

Jurors in the rape trial of Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy have been told to question the credibility of their accusers.
Lisa Wilding KC, in her closing defence speech on behalf of Mendy’s friend and co-accused, Louis Saha Matturie, highlighted the evidence of one complainant, a 19-year-old woman, who told jurors from the witness box that both men had raped her.
But during the 16-week trial, mobile phone video emerged of her having “enthusiastic” sex with Matturie on an occasion she claimed she was being raped.
Jurors at Chester crown court were directed to find both men not guilty of those charges against her.
Wilding said: “She sat in this courtroom and looked you in the eye and gave what would have, perhaps, been a compelling and convincing account of being raped multiple times by these two men. Like so many of the witnesses in this case, she is caught up in a tangled web of connections and contacts and knowledge.
“Why is that important? Because of collusion. You have to consider in respect of each of the women who came to this courtroom to give evidence, is their evidence reliable? Is their evidence solid?
“This case rests on the credibility of witnesses. People lie.”
Two other complainants, who also knew each other, then made “remarkably similar” allegations that Matturie had raped them both while sleeping, Wilding said.
Wilding cited the account of another woman, aged 23, who claimed Matturie raped her at 5.30am in Mendy’s Mercedes car while on a trip to a local garage to buy more alcohol for a party at the footballer’s house.
She stayed at Mendy’s house afterwards and had sex with three other men, and as she stepped out of the gates at Mendy’s mansion at 10.03am, sent a text to a friend saying “Hahaha I have slept with Jack Grealish,” the jury heard.
Such behaviour was “inconsistent” with an allegation of rape, Wilding said.
Her case was “inextricably linked” to that of a 17-year-old who alleges she was raped twice by both Mendy and Matturie the same night, it is alleged.
Wilding said the allegation against Matturie, that he raped her in a cinema room at Mendy’s house while others were present, then went to his flat in Manchester where he raped her a second time, made “absolutely no sense”.
Voice messages sent to her friends later that same day, where she called the party, the “best night of my life” were, “not a reflection of someone who has been raped,” Wilding added.
Prosecutors claim Mendy lured young women into “toxic and dangerous” situations where they were raped and sexually assaulted at a flat he rented in Manchester city centre, and his home, the Spinney, in Mottram St Andrew, in the Cheshire countryside, used for “after-parties” including regular lockdown-busting gatherings.
Matturie is alleged to have been the “fixer” to get girls back to the parties after nights spent drinking in VIP lounges at Manchester nightclubs. Both defendants say any sex with women was consensual.
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Is he still under contract at City?
 
Zebs said:
There's a reason the verdicts in trials are always labelled "not guilty" rather than "innocent".
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Innocent is literally the definition of not guilty. So you’re insinuating anyone with a ‘not guilty’ verdict is not entirely innocent? :lol:
 
Solius said:
I think it was initially 4 women and one other who claimed to have been sexually assaulted.
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Sweet Square said:
In some of the cases video evidence and text messages were used to show the claims against Mendy were not credible.

From the guardian
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Thanks. I really don't know what to make of the whole case. On the one hand, I probably want him to be innocent because it's depressing how many footballers seem to be involved in stuff like this and I also believe in "in dubio pro reo" but these rapists seem to get away so often that you just don't trust the system anymore. And besides the victims who'll never get their justice, it hurts the people who actually were wrongfully accused as well since nobody will believe the verdict.
 
Sweet Square said:
In some of the cases video evidence and text messages were used to show the claims against Mendy were not credible.

From the guardian
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Uk Justice system : Not Guilty with all the evidence.

Redcafe : Guilty with zero evidence.
 
Manncunian said:
Innocent is literally the definition of not guilty. So you’re insinuating anyone with a ‘not guilty’ verdict is not entirely innocent? :lol:
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I'm not a lawyer but to the best of my knowledge, someone can only be found guilty if it's "beyond reasonable doubt". A not-guilty verdict doesn't always necessarily mean you haven't committed what you're being charged with, rather that there isn't enough evidence to say it is beyond reasonable doubt that you did.

Hence the "We find the defendant not guilty" rather than "We find the defendant innocent."
 
Zehner said:
Thanks. I really don't know what to make of the whole case. On the one hand, I probably want him to be innocent because it's depressing how many footballers seem to be involved in stuff like this and I also believe in "in dubio pro reo" but these rapists seem to get away so often that you just don't trust the system anymore. And besides the victims who'll never get their justice, it hurts the people who actually were wrongfully accused as well since nobody will believe the verdict.
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If the Guardian quote is correct and that was indeed proved in court then he should be seen as innocent and none of this "he wasn't found guilty". In his specific case, if the above is accurate, then it is deeply disturbing that he has lost 2 years of his career, had his name dragged through the mud and will probably always have this associated with to him.
 
mu4c_20le said:
There was only two charges. I could've sworn there were many more women who came forward.
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There were 10 charges in total. Found not guilty of 8 of them in the last trial. Found not guilty of the remaining 2 in this latest one.
 
Merge the threads! But yeah this had me thinking about the reaction to this and a similar story... Court of public opinion man
 
Sweet Square said:
In some of the cases video evidence and text messages were used to show the claims against Mendy were not credible.

From the guardian
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The texts and voice messages cast enough doubt but an actual video of them having "enthusiastic sex" on an occasion where they claimed rape? Come on now....
 
WeePat said:
There were 10 charges in total. Found not guilty of 8 of them in the last trial. Found not guilty of the remaining 2 in this latest one.
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Cheers, now I faintly remember something like that.
 
Sounds like he’s a bit of a player. Unfortunately, if you have sex with so many women, it’s odds on that they’ll be some bad eggs in the box who think they can make a few quid.
 
Manncunian said:
Ok we’ve got to a point where caf members are claiming the English dictionary is wrong. Jfc.
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That's not really the point. An innocent person is not guilty but the reciprocal isn't true, a person that is not guilty doesn't mean that they are innocent it means that they are literally not guilty from a judicial standpoint. The distinction is important because it's based on the degree of proof required to convict someone.

As an example if I killed you but no one could prove it without doubt, I could be declared not guilty while being your killer.
 
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