RONALDO: I DIDN’T RAPE MODEL
‘It goes against everything I am’, tweets footie icon
SUPERSTAR Cristiano Ronaldo has strenuously denied raping a model in a Las Vegas hotel.
Kathryn Mayorga claims the former Manchester United star sexually assaulted her in a penthouse suite at the Palms Casino Resort hotel in 2009. But Ronaldo – now with Juventus – tweeted yesterday: “I firmly deny the accusations... rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in.”
POLICE investigating a sex assault claim against Cristiano Ronaldo are set to process the evidence – known as a rape kit – that was collected during a forensic exam.
Kathryn Mayorga underwent the test hours after making the accusation against the football superstar in 2009.
But because Kathryn declined to tell officers the name of her alleged attacker, the kit was not processed and has been stored ever since.
The evidence is finally set to be analysed after detectives in Las Vegas reopened the case on her request.
Hours before her lawyer was due to hold a press conference in the city yesterday, Ronaldo publicly rejected the claims for a second time.
He tweeted: “I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything 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.
“My clear conscious [sic] will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations.”
Kathryn was not scheduled to appear at the press conference because she was too “emotionally fragile”, her lawyer Larissa Drohobyczer said. It is alleged former Manchester United star Ronaldo sexually assaulted Kathryn in his penthouse suite at the Palms Casino Resort hotel.
In legal papers, her lawyer, Leslie Stovall, claimed Kathryn was too afraid to name him at the time after a nurse and officer told her she would be “publicly humiliated” if she did so.
Instead, her then legal team contacted Ronaldo’s attorney who reportedly brokered a £288,000 settlement which banned her from ever discussing the alleged incident.
But last Friday, ex-model Kathryn, 34, revealed her claims to German magazine Der Spiegel and was reportedly trying to overturn the contract. Video has emerged of Ronaldo dancing with Kathryn in the hours before the alleged attack.
Two minutes of footage in a club at the hotel shows them laughing and draping their arms over each other.
Portuguese forward Ronaldo, 33, who plays for Italian giants Juventus, said last week the assault claims were “fake news”.
His lawyer said Kathryn speaking out was “blatantly illegal”.
Rape goes against everything that I am & believe in CRISTIANO RONALDO DENIES ACCUSATION