Las Vegas Police Reopens Investigation Into 2009 Rape Allegation Against Football Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo, the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, has been accused of raping a woman in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009. The lawsuit also accuses Ronaldo of coercion, fraud, inflicting emotional distress and sodomising the victim, CNN has reported.

The victim says that the Portuguese footballer raped her while she repeatedly screamed no, according to a lawsuit filed in Clark County, Nevada last week. The Las Vegas police announced on Monday (1 October) that they have reopened the investigation in the matter.

As per the lawsuit, Ronaldo apologised after the attack saying, “he was sorry, he was usually a gentleman”, claimed the report. The lawsuit alleges that Ronaldo told his representatives that she asked him to stop several times.

The lawsuit accuses the 33-year-old Ronaldo and his entourage of taking advantage of the victim’s emotional state by convincing her to sign a settlement and nondisclosure agreement in 2009. She is claimed to have received $375,000 in exchange for her silence, and she seeks to void the settlement.

Ronaldo and his representatives have denied the rape allegations since the German publication Der Spiegel first reported the incident in 2017. His representatives went on to call the reporting ‘blatantly illegal’ and threatened to sue the publication.

The victim’s goal according to one of her lawyers is to hold the star accountable for his actions and protect other women who have fallen into similar traps. Someday, she hopes to convince victims like her to go after their perpetrators despite their wealth or power.