Ronaldo denies rape allegations

Cristiano Ronaldo is denying the accusations of rape against him, saying Wednesday that he has a “clear conscience” as he awaits the conclusions of an investigation.

Ronaldo, 33, has been accused of rape by Kathryn Mayorga. She has said the soccer great raped her in Las Vegas in 2009.

“I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense,” Ronaldo said in a statement. “My clear conscience will thereby allow me to await with tranquility the results of any and all investigations.”

Ronaldo sent the messages in both Portuguese, his native language, and English on Twitter.

Mayorga filed a civil lawsuit in Nevada last week seeking monetary damages from Ronaldo, according to lawyer Larissa Drohobyczer.

The Associated Press does not typically identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but Drohobyczer said Mayorga gave permission for her name to be used.

The civil lawsuit filed in state court in Las Vegas alleges Ronaldo raped Mayorga, who was then 24, in his penthouse suite at a Las Vegas hotel and hired a team of what the document calls “fixers” to shape the monetary settlement, obstruct a police criminal investigation and trick Mayorga into taking $375,000 to keep quiet.

Drohobyczer said Tuesday that Mayorga, now 34, was “emotionally fragile” and agreed to an outof-court financial settlement nine years ago because she never wanted her name made public.

Mayorga met Ronaldo at a nightclub, according to the lawsuit, and went with him and other people to his suite, where the alleged attack took place in a bedroom.