American woman accuses Cristiano Ronaldo of rape; off-court settlement to remain silent

Five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo has been accused of raping a 34-year-old woman by a German media outlet Der Speigel.

Kathryn Mayorga, reports Speigel, has accused the Portuguese captain of raping her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009 and then paying her $375,000 in an off-the-court settlement to remain silent.

The report, which was published on Thursday, however, received a huge backlash from the footballer’s legal team, who threatened to sue the company for putting out unverified reports.

Ronaldo’s lawyer Schertz Bergmann Rechtsanwälte denied the claims, according to a report in The Telegraph. Calling the report ‘blatantly illegal’, the lawyer said that they would sue the company and seek ‘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 victim, however, claims that she was paid to remain silent. But has now spoken up after undergoing some serious breakdowns in her mind. She accused that Ronaldo sexually assaulted her after she had spent an evening partying with the footballer and his brother-in-law in Las Vegas.

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She further told Der Speigel that she was no more bound by the non-disclosure agreement as she continues to suffer from the injuries inflicted on her nine years ago.

Reports claim that the recently joined Juventus footballer had earlier denied such allegations and claimed that the sex was consensual.

But the report published online by Der Spiegel informs that Ronaldo had given a statement where he was quoted as saying that the woman “she said ‘no’ and ‘stop’ several times.”

A report in the Hindustan Times also says that Mayorga describes how the 33-year-old fell on his knees following the incident and told her he was ’99 percent a good guy’ let down by the ‘one percent’.

This is, however, not the first time Ronaldo has been accused of sexual harassment. Earlier, in 2003 during his time at Manchester United, a woman had accused him of sexual assault in a penthouse suite at the Sanderson Hotel in central London on October 2.

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