US magistrate sides with Ronaldo in rape claim damages case

Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo has faced legal action in the US (Martin Rickett/PA)

A federal magistrate judge in Nevada has sided with Cristiano Ronaldo’s lawyers against a woman who sued for more than the 375,000 dollars (£272,000) in hush money she received in 2010 after saying the footballer raped her in Las Vegas.

In a scathing recommendation to the judge hearing the case, Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts blamed Kathryn Mayorga’s attorney, Leslie Mark Stovall, for inappropriately basing the civil damages lawsuit on leaked and stolen documents shown to be privileged communications between Ronaldo and his lawyers.