Cristiano Ronaldo's legal team seek £500,000 from lawyer in Vegas case

Cristiano Ronaldo's legal team has asked a US district court judge to order the lawyer of a woman who accused the footballer of rape to pay him $626,000 (£516,000), according to court documents submitted yesterday.

Earlier this month US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey dismissed a lawsuit against Ronaldo, 37, because the accuser's lawyer relied on leaked and stolen records.

Kathryn Mayorga had alleged that Ronaldo raped her at a Las Vegas hotel in 2009. Ronaldo denies the allegations and has never been charged.

In a court document published on Wednesday, Ronaldo's attorney, Peter Christiansen, asked US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey to make Mayorga's attorney, Leslie Mark Stovall, personally responsible for the $626,000.

"Given Stovall's abuses and flagrant misconduct, Stovall should be made personally responsible for ensuring Ronaldo is reimbursed for having to defend against his vexatious and bad faith conduct," Christiansen said, as first reported by the Associated Press.

They are due to file an answer with the court by July 8.

When throwing out the case in a 42-page ruling published on June 10 Judge Dorsey accused Stovall of "abuses and flagrant circumvention of the proper litigation process", adding that he had conducted himself in "bad faith" through repeated use of stolen, privileged documents.

Dorsey said that Stovall "crossed the border of ethical behavior before he filed this action, and his disregard for the rules of this court has continued unabated."

The judge said her decision to dismiss Mayorga's case outright with no option to file it again was a "severe sanction" but remarked that Ronaldo had been harmed by Stovall's conduct.

Ronaldo has consistently denied all accusations made against him, calling the story "fake news".

Las Vegas Police re-investigated the crime in 2018 at the request of Mayorga but concluded that the allegations could not "be proven beyond reasonable doubt".