Court to hear argument for reopening Ronaldo rape lawsuit

A US court will hear arguments from lawyers attempting to reopen a rape lawsuit seeking millions of dollars in damages from Cristiano Ronaldo. 

The original case was opened in 2018 and dismissed in June 2022. However, plaintiff Kathryn Mayorga alleges that a confidentiality agreement reached between herself and Ronaldo in 2010 was breached by the football star and associates in 2017, and she is now seeking $25 million (£20.6m) in damages. 

Lawyers for Mayorga will argue that a federal court judge in Nevada was wrong to reject the inclusion of the confidentiality agreement as evidence and that the case should be reopened. 

Mayorga -- who has consented to being named publicly -- alleges that the Portuguese star raped her in a hotel room in Las Vegas in 2009. Ronaldo, via his legal team, has always maintained the encounter was consensual. 

In 2010 the two parties reached a confidentiality agreement, in which Mayorga's lawyer stated his client was paid $375,000 (£305,000). 

Las Vegas prosecutors reopened enquiries into the case after Mayorga's filing in 2018, but a year later concluded there was not enough evidence for the allegations to be proved. 

A panel of three judges will hear verbal arguments from both sides in a special sitting in Las Vegas on Wednesday. But there isn't expected to be an immediate ruling as to whether the civil case will be reopened.