A mother whose son had his phone knocked out of his hand by Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo has spoken out after he allegedly phoned her vowing to fight any legal case.
Ronaldo was given a caution for slapping Jacob Harding's phone out of his hand when he left the pitch at Goodison Park after a defeat to Everton. Jacob, an Everton fan, was left with a bruised and puffy hand after the slap last April.
Sarah Kelly, Jacob's mother, claims Ronaldo didn't apologise directly to them after the incident or offer to replace the smashed phone. The 37-year-old says she now plans to take legal action against the Portuguese player, who last week accepted the caution for assault and criminal damage. She said he was ordered to pay £200 but that the ticking off has meant he “has got away with it", the Mirror reports.
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She told how a day after the attack, a man called Sergio claiming to be Ronaldo’s PA called her with an offer to meet the player at United. She declined but claims she was told: “Do you know who Ronaldo is?”
“I told him, ‘Of course I do and the answer is no. I hung up and was shaking and crying. I felt intimidated. How dare they?” Sarah said the same man phoned again two days later saying Ronaldo would like to speak to her personally.
The player called but she described him as the “most arrogant man I’ve ever spoken to”.
Sarah, of Merseyside – who gave a statement to police after the assault – said: “The phone rang again and a man said, ‘Hello this is Cristiano Ronaldo.’ He asked me if I would like to come down and meet his family. He said, ‘I’m not a bad dad.’ I said to him, ‘I never said you were a bad dad.’
He said, ‘I had a terrible upbringing, I lost my dad.’ I said to him, ‘Everybody has a sob story Ronaldo, I lost my dad young, I’ve had cancer.’
“He kept calling me Jack and didn’t even know my name and I said, ‘My name is Sarah’ and he said, ‘Oh, Sarah, I’m sorry.’
“He never referred to Jacob by his name either, it was always ‘the boy’. ‘I know the boy’s got problems,’ he said. I told him, ‘He hasn’t got a problem, he has a disability, you’re the one with the problem.’
"He said ‘I’m sorry’ but then added, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’ He said he hadn’t ‘kicked, killed or punched anybody’.
“That lit my fire, I was raging and my heart was pumping and I told him, ‘So you smacking my son’s hand and bruising it, is not hurting anybody?’
“He said I don’t want it in the media or press and the court. He said he had a good legal team, he would win and he would fight me all the way. He said he knew how to play the media.”
At one point during the 10-minute call Sarah said he told her how he had been up on rape charges and tax offences.
She added: “He asked me what I wanted from him and I just said, ‘I don’t want anything from you, the police are dealing with it.’”
Sarah told how Ronaldo said he would send her his personal number, which arrived in a message from Sergio.
She added: “I came off the phone and he’d made me question myself, like we’d done something wrong. He had gaslighted me. I was in floods of tears.
“This was a police investigation and I was a witness. I felt intimidated and furious he had been given my number. I’m absolutely disgusted he’s got away with this. He’s not even replaced my son’s phone. Meanwhile the trolls have made my life a living hell.
“A lot were Manchester United fans saying my son probably robbed the phone anyway. It was disgusting. My boy has a heart of gold.
“I’m scared to leave the house, always looking over my shoulder. We were made out to be the criminals and Ronaldo the innocent victim.
“It’s been a total nightmare. I was speechless on the phone when I heard he’d got a caution. Talk about a slap in the face and a total misjustice.”
Explaining why she is planning to take legal action against Ronaldo and the club, Sarah added: “I want to see justice because there hasn’t been any. I want him to be held to account for what he did. The only way to get justice is to keep on fighting.”
Sarah believes Manchester United had given the player her number. She said: “I reported it to the police but they didn’t seem to do anything about it.”
Jacob, who also suffers from dyspraxia which affects his balance, was accused of swearing as Ronaldo approached the fans, a claim Sarah denies.
She said: “There were boys behind him swearing but not Jacob and the police confirmed that.” Jacob had picked the game against United because of his adulation for Ronaldo. Sarah added: “He idolised him.
“He was super excited and made us go hours early to watch the warm up.” Jacob added: “Ronaldo high-fived me after training. I was made up.”
But speaking of the moment the player slapped his hand, the youngster said: “When he did that, I thought, ‘You’re not a nice man and why me?’ He could have said sorry but he didn’t.
“He doesn’t feel sorry at all. I wasn’t swearing at him, my phone wasn’t in his face. I looked up to him but he didn’t set an example that day.”
Sarah added: “Because of his autism Jacob talks about it every day.”
After the incident Ronaldo, 37, posted: “I would like to apologise for my outburst.” He also offered to invite Jacob to an Old Trafford match.
But Sarah said: “Who would want to meet the person who hurt them?”
Ronaldo’s representatives said of Sarah’s claims: “We would not be making any comment.”
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