LAS VEGAS/TURIN: A lawyer acting for Portugal and Juventus superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has said that documents about his 2009 involvement with a woman in Las Vegas have been “completely fabricated.”

However a statement issued through his representative agency, Gestifute, conceded that Ronaldo had shared a brief consensual relationship with Kathryn Mayorga, who has accused him of rape in a hotel room in the city.

Ronaldo, 33, has denied assaulting Mayorga. The local police department has said it has reopened an inquiry into a report Mayorga made at the time.

In 2010, Mayorga reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement with Ronaldo involving a $375,000 payment for agreeing never to go public with the allegations.

Initially Ronaldo dismissed the claim, reported in Germany news magazine Der SpiegelĀ as “fake news”. Later he issued a social media denial of having committed any offence.

A statement from Ronaldo’s lawyer Peter Christiansen has reiterated that he “vehemently denies all accusations in this civil action”.

Christiansen said a “media outlet irresponsibly” based its reports on “stolen and easily manipulated digital documents” of which “significant parts were altered and/or completely fabricated”.

His client continued to insist that “what happened in 2009 in Las Vegas was completely consensual”.

Christiansen did not deny the existence of a non-disclosure agreement but said “the reasons that led him to do so are at least to be distorted”.

The statement added: “This agreement is by no means a confession of guilt.

“What happened was simply that Cristiano Ronaldo merely followed the advice of his advisers 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.

“Unfortunately, it is now involved in the type of litigation that is very common in the United States.”

Christiansen added: “Although Cristiano Ronaldo is accustomed to media attention, inherent in the fact that he is a famous person, it is absolutely deplorable that the media continue to propagate and stimulate an intentional defamation campaign based on stolen and easily manipulated digital documents.

“Cristiano Ronaldo has mandated his lawyers in the United States and Europe to deal with all legal aspects and expresses full confidence that the truth will prevail, despite the corruption of counter-information, and in which the laws of Nevada will be enforced and respected.”

The statement also claims documents allegedly containing statements by Ronaldo are “pure inventions”.

He added: “So that there are no doubts: Cristiano Ronaldo vehemently denies all the accusations in this civil action, in consistency with what he has done in the last nine years.

“The documents that allegedly contain statements by Mr Ronaldo and were reproduced in the media are pure inventions.

“By 2015, dozens of entities (including law firms) in different parts of Europe were attacked and their electronic data stolen by a cyber criminal.

“This hacker tried to sell such information, and a media outlet irresponsibly ended up publishing some of the stolen documents, significant parts of which were altered and/or completely fabricated.

“Once again, for the avoidance of doubt, Cristiano Ronaldo’s position has always been, and continues to be, that what happened in 2009 in Las Vegas was completely consensual.”

 

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