Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of an alleged sexual assault.
Conor McGregor was present at Dublin’s High Court on Tuesday to face a civil lawsuit pertaining to a sexual assault that is alleged to have happened in December 2018.
Nikita Hand, 35, claims that she was sexually assaulted by McGregor and another man, James Lawrence, in a penthouse suite at the Beacon Hotel, Dublin, and is claiming civil damages from both.
McGregor and Lawrence have both denied the accusations, and the former UFC champion’s lawyers say Hand is attempting extortion. The trial began Tuesday.
As members of the jury were sworn in, Justice Alexander Owens told jurors that it is alleged that the men had “in effect raped her.”
Justice Owens also clarified that it is not a criminal case, but a civil case, meaning that if it is determined the assault happened, it is a civil wrong and therefore the plaintiff is entitled to compensation.
‘He just wasn’t taking no for an answer’
John Gordan, senior council for Hand, said Tuesday that his client knew McGregor as she is from the same area, is in the same age group, and shares mutual friends with the UFC fighter.
The court was told that McGregor collected Hand, a hairdresser, and a friend from their place of work on Dec. 9 following a Christmas party. Hand understood that they were going to another party. They later went to the home of Lawrence, who joined them in the car. In the back of the car, Hand alleged that McGregor shared a bag of cocaine with her and her friend.
McGregor, Lawrence, Hand, her friend, McGregor’s security team and others went to a penthouse suite at the Beacon Hotel.
Hand told the court that the group had been drinking and laughing. At one point, Hand claims that McGregor told her to “suck on that” as she was walking by a bathroom he was using.
Later, Hand recalled being alone in a bedroom with McGregor, where she alleges she stopped him as he tried to make advances on her. Hand also claimed that she was on her period at the time of the alleged assault.
“I said, ‘No, I don’t feel comfortable, I know of Dee, I know her family,’” Hand said referring to McGregor’s longtime fiancée Dee Devlin.
“I was trying to try talk him around that I didn’t want anything. I didn’t want to have sex and I wasn’t there for anything like that. He just wasn’t taking no for an answer. He then pinned me onto the bed.
“Kept telling me to, ‘Relax babe.’ He pinned me down on the bed. I remember putting my arms up against my chest. He just kept pushing his weight down on top of me. I remember putting my arms like this, to keep him as far away from me as possible.”
Gordan told the court that his client Hand alleged she was “completely unable” to push McGregor off.
He said jurors will “see pictures of her hands and wrists, which are black and blue. You will see that her left breast has a bloodied scratch. The scratch is there because she was wearing a watch and had her hands up to protect herself. She was pressed down on and the watch scarred her breast.”
“Mr. McGregor then flips her over and puts her arm in a lock and draws her up by the neck. She can’t breathe. And he does it again. By the third time he does it, she gives up. She can’t resist this anymore. In the course of this, he says: ‘Now you know what it was like to be in the Octagon when I went down three times.’
“She was at this point completely terrified,” Gordan continued. “She subjected herself to what was about to happen, which was a violent and vicious assault.”
‘I thought he was going to kill me’
Earlier in the day, the court heard testimony from Dr. Daniel Kane, who was working in Dublin’s Rotunda hospital sexual assault trauma unit on Dec. 10.
Kane claimed he met Hand that day after she arrived to the hospital via ambulance after her mother called emergency services.
Hand told Kane what she alleged happened. Kane said he witnessed Hand shaking and crying and bruising was present in multiple locations across Hand’s body.
“He had me by the neck, he stopped me from breathing a few times. I thought he was going to kill me,” Kane said Hand told him.
Kane said he examined Hand and, with forceps, removed a tampon that was wedged at the “very, very top.” He ultimately concluded from his examination of her that it was “consistent with the outline of events described by [Hand].”
The case is expected to continue over the next two weeks.
