The French world champion in football, Benjamin Mendy, accused of several rapes in England, was presented on Monday to the jury as a "predator" who abused "vulnerable, terrified and isolated" victims.
The 28-year-old French defender, suspended for a year by Manchester City, is being tried in Chester, northern England, for eight rapes, an attempted rape, and a sexual assault against seven women.
Mendy denies the ten charges against him, which concern alleged incidents between October 2018 and August 2021 at his house in Prestbury, Cheshire. The footballer faces life imprisonment.
In the same trial, another man, Louis Saha Matturie - unrelated to former footballer Louis Saha - is also accused of eight rapes and four sexual assaults on eight women between July 2012 and August 2021. He also pleaded not guilty.