Man charged with serious sexual offences in Cheshire
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has authorised Cheshire Constabulary to charge Benjamin Mendy, aged 27, with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.
The offences are alleged to have taken place in Cheshire between October 2020 and August 2021 and relate to three complainants over the age of 16.
Mendy, of Withinlee Road, Prestbury, has been remanded in police custody and will appear before Chester Magistrates’ Court on Friday 27 August 2021.
Cheshire Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service would like to remind everyone that criminal proceedings against Mendy are active and that he has a right to a fair trial. It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.
Notes to editors
- Benjamin Mendy (DOB: 17/07/1994) has been charged with:
- Rape of a person over 16 years of age x 4
- Sexual Assault x 1
- The decision to charge has been made in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.
- The function of the CPS is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for the criminal court to consider.
- The CPS assessment of any case is not in any sense a finding of, or implication of, any guilt or criminal conduct. It is not a finding of fact, which can only be made by a court, but rather an assessment of what it might be possible to prove to a court, in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.
- This assessment is based on the evidence available arising out of the police investigation and not on the evidence that is likely to be gathered by the defence, and likely to be used to test the prosecution evidence. The CPS charging decision is therefore necessarily an assessment on the basis of the evidence that is available to the CPS at the time the decision is made.
- CPS prosecutors must also keep every case under review, so that they take account of any change in circumstances that occurs as the case develops, including what becomes known of the defence case. If appropriate, the CPS may change the charges or stop a case.
- No further information is available at this stage.