CRISTIANO Ronaldo has won £278,000 from his rape accuser’s lawyer for acting in “bad faith” over bogus sex claims.
A US judge ordered Kathryn Mayorga’s lawyer Leslie Stovall must personally hand over the cash to the world’s highest-paid sportsman.
GettyCristiano Ronaldo playing for his new club Al Nassr[/caption]
AP:Associated PressKathryn Mayorga pictured in a Las Vegas club with Ronaldo[/caption]
It comes after the 38-year-old former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus forward claimed he had been prejudiced by the attorney’s “reckless conduct” in the long-running case.
The star has always denied raping Mayorga, 40, in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009, insisting they had consensual sex, and police have never brought any charges.
Mayorga claimed Ronaldo had paid her £275,000 in 2010 to gag her from talking about the incident and stop her pursuing criminal charges.
But eight years later she filed the civil lawsuit seeking millions more after Football Leaks exposed details of communications between Ronaldo’s lawyers.
Then last June US district judge Jennifer Dorsey threw out that claim on the basis that she was unhappy over the way documents filed to the court were obtained.
“Ronaldo would not have incurred a majority of the fees and costs that he spent on this litigation had it not been for the plaintiff counsel’s bad faith,” said the judge in her latest ruling.
She also threw out a bid by former model Mayorga to get to Ronaldo to produce his contract with his lawyer to see if he had benefited from any fee discounts.
The judge has accused Stovall of tainting the case “beyond redemption” with his use of hacked documents detailing discussions between Ronaldo and his lawyers about the rape allegations.
Ronaldo and his lawyer have repeatedly said the documents were forged in an attempt to defame him.
He was awarded more than half of the £506,000 in legal fees he was trying to claw back and not the full amount.
“It was clear early on that Mayorga’s allegations were rooted in the purloined materials,” said the Las Vegas-based judge.
“Ronaldo shares at least part of the blame for this case dragging on for as long as it did although he had to recognise its dubious underpinnings.
“I thus decline to award fees for the work Ronaldo’s attorneys performed in discovery or preparation for trial, as that work could have been avoided.”
At the time of the alleged attack, Ronaldo, then 24, was in Las Vegas on holiday with his brother-in-law and cousin.
Budding model Ms Mayorga, then 25, was working in Rain nightclub, inside the Palms Casino Resort and met the star in the venue’s VIP area.
Ronaldo is now on a mega-bucks £173 million-a-year deal with Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr.