A lawyer for Cristiano Ronaldo, has released a statement saying that documents concerning rape allegations made against him are “pure inventions.”
Las Vegas police have reopened an investigation into the allegations made by former model, Kathryn Mayorga against the Juventus and Portuguese star.
Mayorga claims Ronaldo took advantage of her fragile emotional state and pressured her into signing a non-disclosure agreement, involving a $375,000 settlement for silence.
The statement from Ronaldo’s lawyer Peter Christiansen said, accusations are based on “fabricated documents” which are the result of a 2015 cyber-attack that saw electronic data stolen from “dozens of entities in different parts of Europe”.
He added that the media outlet “irresponsibly” published a report based on “stolen and easily manipulated digital documents.”
Der Spiegel responded with a statement saying “We stand by our reporting. We have no reason to believe that those documents are not authentic.”
Der Spiegal also point out the inconsistency in the narrative of Ronaldo’s representatives in the settlement that was payed to Ms. Mayorga in 2010.
“When we published an article about the settlement agreement between Ms. Mayorga and Mr. Ronaldo in 2017, his advisors called it “nothing but a piece of journalistic fiction.”
Yet, in his statement, Christiansen said that Ronaldo does not deny entering an agreement with Mayorga but “the reasons that led him to do so are at least to be distorted.”
“What happened was simply that Cristiano Ronaldo merely followed the advice of his advisors in order to put an end to the outrageous accusations made against him, in order precisely to avoid attempts, such as those we are now witnessing, to destroy a reputation built thanks to hard work, athletic ability and behavioural correction.”
Der Spiegal have also published two versions of a questionnaire from Ronaldo’s lawyers describing what happened on the night that the alleged rape occurred.
In the first version of the questionnaire, Ronaldo is quoted saying that Mayorga said “no” and “stop.” It is consistent with the allegations that he raped Ms. Mayorga while she repeatedly screamed no at him.
Both questionnaires also state that Ronaldo apologised to Ms. Mayorga after the alleged inicident.
However, in the second version of the questionnaire, Der Spiegal said, “Mr Ronaldo denies the accusation of rape and denies apologising to Ms Mayorga,” reflecting further inconsistencies in the argument of Ronaldo and his representatives.
While Der Speigal further stated that “Before publishing our story about the rape accusations, we gave Mr Ronaldo and his lawyers the opportunity to respond to the allegations” and they declined, Christiansen said “Cristiano Ronaldo’s position has always been, and continues to be, that what happened in 2009 in Las Vegas was completely consensual.”
Ronaldo has denied all of the accusations made against him in this civil action stating that “rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in.”
He took to ‘Twitter’ to “firmly” deny the allegation, and said that he refused “to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at (his) expense.”