Ronaldo employed specialists to silence rape accuser, magazine says

Cristiano Ronaldo deployed a team of ‘reputation protection specialists’ to silence a woman who accused him of rape, a lawsuit claims.

Conspiracy: sex assault accuser Kathryn Mayorga.

Cristiano Ronaldo deployed a team of “reputation protection specialists” to silence a woman who accused him of rape, according to a lawsuit filed in Nevada.

The suit on behalf of a 34-year-old Kathryn Mayorga, who says she was attacked by the footballer in 2009, seeks to rescind a non-disclosure agreement allegedly reached with Ronaldo’s lawyers.

It accuses his agents and representatives of “conspiring to obstruct the criminal investigation and prosecution of Cristiano Ron­aldo” for the alleged sexual assault and to reduce her civil claim for damages. Ms Mayorga met the footballer at a nightclub in Las Vegas and accompanied him and a party of guests to his penthouse suite, where they were invited to get into a hot tub, the lawsuit says. Ronaldo offered to lend her some clothing for the hot tub and later accosted her in a bathroom as she was changing, it claims.

Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. Picture: AFP

Ms Mayorga rebuffed his advances, after which the footballer was alleged to have pulled her into a bedroom and sexually assaulted her, as she screamed “No, no, no,” the lawsuit says. It says Ronaldo apologised afterwards, telling her that he was a gentleman.

The claims against Ronaldo were first published by German magazine Der Spiegel, which reported on the settlement last year. Der Spiegel said Ms Mayorga was paid $US375,000 ($520,000) as part of an agreement never to speak about the incident.

It said she decided to break her silence after seeing the rise of the #MeToo movement and speaking with another lawyer, who advised that she could not be bound by the agreement. The lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall, said he had filed a civil complaint to make the agreement void. “Kathryn was sexually assaulted in June 2009 by an individual named Cristiano Ronaldo,” he said. “The purpose of this lawsuit is to hold Cristiano Ronaldo responsible within a civil court of law for the injuries he has caused to Kathryn Mayorga and the consequences of those injuries.”

In an exchange recorded with a fan and posted as a live online video yesterday, Ronaldo said the detailed story published by Der Spiegel was “fake news”.

The Portuguese footballer and former Manchester United player, who joined Juventus from Real Madrid this year for £99.2 million, ($178m) suggested that he was a victim of those who wanted to use his name for fame.

A lawyer for Ronaldo, 33, issued a statement claiming that the report was “illegal”.

Christian Schertz said: “We have been instructed to immediately assert all existing claims under press law against Der Spiegel, in particular compensation for moral damages in an amount corresponding to the gravity of the infringement, which is probably one of the most serious violations of personal rights in recent years.”

The Times