Washington: Portugal and Juventus star striker Cristiano Ronaldo will not face rape charges, US prosecutors announced Monday. The star forward had been accused by Kathryn Mayorga of sexual assault in a Las Vegas hotel in 2009.
However, Las Vegas prosecutors said that the claims could not ‘be proven beyond reasonable doubt’.
Mayorga claimed to have reached an out of court settlement with the star in 2010, and revealed that she had chosen to speak out against Cristiano Ronaldo after being inspired by the #MeToo movement. The settlement, which compelled Mayorga to anonymity, involved a payment of $3,75,000.
Vegas police began investigating the allegation in August 2018 at the request of Mayorga, but decided to drop the investigation ‘upon a review of information at this time’.
In her lawsuit Mayorga had claimed that the she and Cristiano Ronaldo met at the now-closed Rain nightclub inside the Palms Hotel and Casino June 13, 2009. Ronaldo invited her and others to his penthouse suite. According to her, Ronaldo asked her to join the group in a jacuzzi and gave her shorts and a T-shirt to wear.
As Mayorga changed in a bathroom, Ronaldo approached her, exposed himself and asked her for oral sex. Mayorga said she refused, but then Ronaldo pulled her into a bedroom and raped her as she screamed, “No, no, no.”
According to the lawsuit, Ronaldo apologised and said after the incident ‘he was usually a gentleman’.
Agencies