Cristiano Ronaldo will not be charged with rape in Las Vegas.

By Alex Dobuzinski

(Reuters) – Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo will not face charges in Las Vegas in connection with a decade-old sexual assault allegation because the case cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, prosecutors said on Monday.

Ronaldo, widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time and who plays for Italian club Juventus, has always maintained his innocence.

Kathryn Mayorga filed a civil lawsuit in Nevada state court in September 2018, accusing the athlete of raping her in the penthouse suite of a Las Vegas hotel in 2009 and subsequently paying her $375,000 in hush money.

A woman called Las Vegas police on June 13, 2009, to report she had been sexually assaulted. Police took her to the hospital for an evaluation, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office said Monday, declining to name the person who attacked her.

The statement did not name the woman, but Mayorga’s civil lawsuit mirrors the allegations made by prosecutors.

Mayorga and Ronaldo reached a civil settlement in 2010, and law enforcement did not hear from her again until August 28, 2018, when she asked police to reopen the investigation. She said Ronaldo was the person who sexually abused her, prosecutors said.

On July 8, Las Vegas police asked the Clark County District Attorney’s Office to prosecute the case.

“Based on the review of the information available at this time, the allegations of sexual abuse against Cristiano Ronaldo cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Monday.

Ronaldo’s lawyer Peter Christiansen did not return calls. Mayorga’s lawyers could not be reached for comment.

Las Vegas police said in January they had officially asked Italian authorities to obtain a DNA sample from Ronaldo.

Police did not immediately respond to emails on Monday asking whether they ever obtained the DNA.

The civil suit, in which Mayorga sought more than $200,000 in damages, was transferred to federal court.

Mayorga and Ronaldo met at a Las Vegas nightclub, according to the lawsuit, before she joined a group of people who went to his penthouse suite to view the Las Vegas Strip.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Rosalba O’Brien)