Rape ‘abominable’ says Ronaldo as he denies accusations by Las Vegas model
JUVENTUS superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has said rape is an “abominable” crime, as he once again denied allegations made against him.
The Portuguese footballer is being sued by Kathryn Mayorga in the US. She claims he raped her in the penthouse suite of a Las Vegas hotel in 2009.
The former Manchester United star insists he has a “clear conscious” [sic] on the matter and he will now “await with tranquility” for the investigation to unfold.
“I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me,” Ronaldo wrote on Twitter. “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.”
Lawyers for Ms Mayorga, who sued Ronaldo in a district court in Clark County, Nevada, yesterday said the soccer star had 20 days from the filing of the lawsuit to respond.
Ms Mayorga has left Las Vegas to escape the attention on her case, her lawyers said at a news conference yesterday, adding the alleged assault has caused her severe mental and emotional damage.
She was not at the news conference in Las Vegas.
“She has decided not to make herself available to the media and stay out of the public because of her emotional state,” attorney Leslie Stovall told the news conference. “It is not pleasant for her.”
Her lawyers said they were considering whether to release documents related to the case including police reports, medical records, and an out-ofcourt settlement that included a non-disclosure agreement about the alleged incident.
Ms Mayorga alleges Ronaldo dispatched a team of “fixers” after the alleged incident to obstruct the criminal investigation and trick her into keeping quiet for $375,000.
Lawsuit
The suit says the woman asked police last month to reopen the criminal case. Las Vegas police confirmed on Monday that they have reopened a sexual assault case from 2009 brought by the woman named in the lawsuit.
Ronaldo missed Juventus’s Champions League win over Young Boys on Tuesday through suspension, but will return this weekend in Serie A against Udinese.
Ronaldo’s representatives did not immediately respond when contacted but after a report on the case in ‘Der Spiegel’ last week, his lawyer Christian Schertz threatened to sue the German magazine.
“It violates the personal rights of our client Cristiano Ronaldo in an exceptionally serious way,” he said.