Ronaldo rape accusation: What we know so far and what CR7 risks
- Nikita Fesyukov
At the end of September, Kathryn Mayorga, a 34-year-old woman, accused Juve’s star of raping her when she was 25 and working at a nightclub in Las Vegas. The woman also stated that the Portuguese paid her a fee of $375 thousand to stay quiet about the matter.
The 33-year-old footballer issued a denial several days after, saying “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”.
Despite this, the media did not stop, and at the beginning of October German paper, Der Spiegel published images of the agreement between Ronaldo and Mayorga. The German source also claimed that “there is no doubt about the authenticity of the document, as Ronaldo’s legal representatives did not respond”.
Der Spiegel also revealed Ronaldo’s answers to questionnaires from his lawyers, stating that Mayorga said “no” and “stop” on several occasions to an offer of sexual intercourse. In the second version of this document, however, Ronaldo answered differently, claiming that the sexual intercourse was consensual on both sides.
The magazine also came out with the police report filed after the alleged incident. It said that the informer (Mayorga) was crying into the phone, refusing to say the name of the alleged attacker. She only said that the person is a “public figure” and a “famous athlete”.
Meanwhile, Leslie Stovall, Mayorga’s lawyer, has said to the Daily Mail that he has received a call from a woman “who claims to have had a similar experience”. Meanwhile, a Las Vegas police spokesman told Mirror that “at some point, we will have to listen to him”, referring to Cristiano Ronaldo and a possible hearing in the near future.
The second woman is claimed to be English and accused the footballer of rape that happened in 2005. British tabloid The Sun spoke interviewed the driver who brought the woman home that night.
“The girl was very happy after leaving the hotel room. She said that Ronaldo was fantastic and was so excited that she revealed to me that she wanted to call her son Ronaldo. When I heard that the girl wanted to report him, I was shocked,” he said.
Amid all the chaos surrounding the accusations, various responses have emerged, some in support of the player and some opposed to this kind of action. The player’s family stands behind him, as does Juventus and many public figures such as, for example, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
On the other hand, Ronaldo’s sponsors are concerned by the matter, as these allegations have the potential to damage the companies’ images. Nike and EA Sports, for example, issued a statement confirming their concerns.
“We are deeply concerned by the disturbing allegations and will continue to closely monitor the situation,” a representative of Nike told AP. EA Sports have expressed similar concerns to the same sources, adding that “we expect cover athletes and ambassadors to conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with EA’s values”.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo met his lawyers while on holiday in Lisbon. Today, he will return to training with Juventus after three days off given by Allegri to the players who were not called up by their respective national teams. According to Corriere dello Sport, those close to him describe Ronaldo as ‘quiet and peaceful’ despite the accusations coming from the USA and UK.
But what does Ronaldo really risk if proven guilty? In the worst case, he could also risk a prison sentence. Difficult, but possible. In the opposite case, Mayorga would probably have big problems with the lawyers of the Portuguese star, considering how she is tarnishing the player’s reputation at this very moment.
Investigators will try to reconstruct the story and hear Mayorga and Ronaldo in the coming weeks and then decide whether to defer the player to trial or not.