Woman who accused Cristiano Ronaldo of rape appeals court's decision to dismiss case

Kathryn Mayorga has appealed the court's decision to dismiss Cristiano Ronaldo's rape case and it is scheduled to be first heard by a mediator on Tuesday in an one-hour phone hearing.

Kathryn Mayorga, who accused Cristiano Ronaldo of allegedly raping her in 2009, has appealed Judge Jennifer Dorsey's decision to dismiss the case. According to The Sun, the 36-year-old has appealed the dismissal section at the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The case is scheduled to be first heard by a mediator on Tuesday in an one-hour phone hearing. Mayorga's case was dismissed in June after a judge criticised her lawyer for depending on leaked documents from the Football Leaks website.

Cristiano Ronaldo reacts during a Premier League match.(REUTERS)

The alleged rape took place in a Las Vegas hotel room and Mayorga was paid 270,000 pounds to stay quiet. Las Vegas police reportedly prepared an arrest warrant for Ronaldo in 2019 after Mayorga accused him, but Clark County district decided to not prosecute the footballer.

Mayorga's lawyer Leslie Mark Stovall said, "What happened is when that [arrest warrant] was submitted to the district attorney's office, Mr. Wolfson declined to prosecute. He doesn't say why he decided to decline and anything—any argument is just speculation. It was within the statute of limitations. The police believed that they had a case to prosecute for one count of sexual assault and the DA decided not to."

Meanwhile, Ronaldo's off-field troubles have been in reflection of his on-field troubles too. The Portugal captain has been in poor form and Manchester United have opened their campaign with embarrassing defeats. Such has been his form that Ronaldo's former teammate Wayne Rooney, who is also a former United captain, has called for him to be dropped.

"I wouldn't play Cristiano Ronaldo, and I wouldn't play Marcus Rashford. If I was in Ten Hag's position my main concern would be getting energy on the pitch, and United's failure to recruit a No 9 means they relied on Ronaldo against Brentford, even though he hadn't trained a lot with the team. He looked like he needs time to get match fit", he said.