Mendy denies lying to protect himself during rape trial

The 28-year-old admitted to leading a party lifestyle and having sex with women "within seconds and minutes" of meeting them, Chester Crown Court heard. The prosecution accuses the former French international of being a "predator", regularly going clubbing in Manchester before holding after-parties where young women were invited back to his Cheshire mansion and sexually assaulted.

Mendy denies seven counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault against six young women. Under cross-examination, Mendy denied he was too drunk at some of the parties to mistake whether or not the women were consenting to sex. The former Marseille defender accepted that during his time in prison, after he was initially remanded in custody, had forced him to reflect on where his life had gone "badly wrong".

In one case he asked one of the alleged victims' boyfriends, who was a friend of Mendy's, if he had any objection to him having sex with her. "I realise it is disrespectful and bad," Mendy told the jury. "I asked him if it was OK if I tried to have sex with her. He told me yes." His co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie allegedly had the job of finding young women for sex, which he denies. Matturie, 41, denies six counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault relating to seven young women. The trial continues.