A young woman tearfully told detectives how she woke up in bed with Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy raping her.

The woman, aged 19 at the time, said she had been drinking champagne with Mendy, his friends and other young women at China White nightclub in Manchester, before returning to the footballer’s Cheshire mansion.

Her police interview was played to jurors at Mendy’s trial at Chester Crown Court.

Mendy denies eight counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault against seven young women.

After spending time in the swimming pool, the woman became sleepy and went up to a top floor bedroom at the house owned by Mendy, 28, in Mottram St Andrew near Prestbury, the court heard.

She changed out of the bikini she had brought with her and into her underwear and fell asleep, alone, in the double bed.

In the police interview, played to jurors, the woman, breaking down in tears, said: “I woke up to find Ben on top of me, but I was on my side. It was horrific, I was on my period.

Liz Truss will become UK’s next prime minister after beating Rishi Sunak in race to succeed Boris Johnson

New prime minister – live updates: Cabinet resignations begin as Truss considers top team; Sunak to stay on as MP

Priti Patel to resign as home secretary

“I remember five seconds of it and him putting a towel under me. I remember saying, ‘No. I’m on my period’.”

The woman, who described herself as “out of it” or “6/10” drunk, is asked if there was “any chance” Mendy could have thought she wanted to have sex with him that night.

She replied: “No, because I don’t know him that well.”

The woman said two or three months before the alleged rape, she had sex with Mendy, “like a one-night thing” but that she was sober and it was consensual.

Under cross-examination, Eleanor Laws QC, defending Mendy, suggested her account of what happened, waking up to find Mendy raping her, was the “exact same” allegation made by her friend, who the footballer is also accused of raping the same evening.

The witness replied: “I have not spoken to her.”

Mendy’s co-accused, Louis Saha Matturie, 41, of Eccles, Salford, denies eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault, relating to eight young women.

Prosecutors allege Mendy is a “predator” who turned the pursuit of women for sex into a game.

The trial continues.

Related posts:

Child dies after being rescued from fire at south London flat Rangers fans criticised for gathering outside Ibrox despite lockdown rules Nearly 2,000 COVID cases linked to Scotland fans watching Euro 2020 games Greta Thunberg accuses UK government of being ‘climate villains’ Serving Met Police officer charged with child sex offences High COVID cases in Wales due to early vaccine programme success, first minister says Hormone replacement therapy could become available over the counter Northern Ireland minister says he has ordered halt to Brexit agri-food checks at nation’s ports PM denies overriding security concerns to award Lord Lebedev peerage Ukraine donation box stolen from London as police search for suspect Two asylum seekers have deportation to Rwanda delayed hours before first flight ‘Ferocious heat’ could lead to deaths as UK braces for unprecedented temperatures