Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded £280,000 by the lawyer of his rape accuser following the dismissal of sex attack claims.

 CRISTIANO RONALDO has been awarded £278,000 by the lawyer of his rape accuser for acting in "bad faith" in relation to bogus sex claims.

Leslie Stovall, Kathryn Mayorga's lawyer, was ordered by a US judge to personally hand over the cash to the world's highest-paid sportsman.

2Cristiano Ronaldo in action for Al Nassr, his new club.Credit: Getty

Kathryn Mayorga was photographed with Ronaldo in a Las Vegas nightclub.Credit: AP:Associated Press

It comes after the 38-year-old former Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Juventus forward claimed the attorney's "reckless conduct" in the long-running case had prejudiced him.

The actor has always denied raping Mayorga, 40, in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009, claiming they had consensual sex, and no charges have ever been filed.

Mayorga claimed Ronaldo paid her £275,000 in 2010 to keep her quiet about the incident and prevent her from filing criminal charges.

However, eight years later, after Football Leaks revealed details of communications between Ronaldo's lawyers, she filed a civil lawsuit seeking millions more.

Then, in June, US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey dismissed that claim, citing her dissatisfaction with how documents filed with the court were obtained.

"Ronaldo would not have incurred a majority of the fees and costs that he spent on this litigation if the plaintiff counsel's bad faith had not been present," the judge wrote in her most recent ruling.

She also rejected former model Mayorga's request that Ronaldo produce his contract with his lawyer to see if he had received any fee reductions.

Stovall has been accused by the judge of tainting the case "beyond redemption" by using hacked documents detailing conversations between Ronaldo and his lawyers about the rape allegations.

Ronaldo and his lawyer have stated numerous times that 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 attempting to recover.

"It was clear from the start that Mayorga's allegations were based on stolen materials," said the Las Vegas-based judge.

"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." "Ronaldo shares at least some of the blame for this case dragging on for as long as it did, even though he had to acknowledge its dubious underpinnings."

Ronaldo, then 24, was on vacation in Las Vegas with his brother-in-law and cousin at the time of the alleged attack.

Ms Mayorga, then 25, was working in Rain nightclub inside the Palms Casino Resort when she met the star in the VIP area.

Ronaldo has signed a £173 million-a-year contract with Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr.