Mixed Martial Arts fighter Conor McGregor had sex with a woman against her wishes and with such force that a tampon was embedded in her vagina and had to be removed with a forceps, a High Court jury has been told.
The alleged assault occurred in a hotel penthouse after Mr McGregor and Nikita Ní Laimhín had taken cocaine, John Gordon SC, for Ms Ní Laimhín, outlined.
Ms Ní Laimhín, who knew Mr McGregor and was friendly with him, had been at a Christmas work party earlier that night, December 8th, 2018, during which she was drinking and had taken drugs, the jury heard. She was on antidepressants and “full of drugs” at the time of the alleged assault.
When she was referred to a sexual assault treatment unit the day after the alleged assault, a doctor was so concerned that he directed that photographs be taken of her injuries, counsel said.
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He told the jury that, in the face of this, Mr McGregor “tells you that this was a consensual encounter, they were just having fun and a bit of rough sex”, Mr Gordon said.
“That’s his answer,” counsel said. The jury, he said, should never “be fooled” into leaving their common sense behind them.
Mr McGregor is saying that she gave him license to carry out what had to have been a brutal assault on her body, he said. The jury would find it “unimaginable that anyone would do that”, he said.
James Lawrence, a second man whom Ms Ni Laimhín alleges sexually assaulted her in the hotel, also denied her claims and pleaded that she had consensual sex with him, counsel said.
Counsel was opening the action by Ms Ní Laimhín (35), a hair colourist, for damages against Mr McGregor and Mr Lawrence of Rafters Road, Drimnagh, over alleged sexual assault of her on December 9th, 2018.
Ms Ní Laimhín was in court number 24 of the Four Courts when her case opened before Mr Justice Alexander Owens and a jury of eight women and four men.
Mr McGregor, accompanied by his father Tony, was also in court, as was Mr Lawrence.
Ms Ní Laímhín is represented by Mr Gordon and Ray Boland SC, with Siún Leonowicz BL, instructed by David Coleman of Coleman Legal Partners.
Remy Farrell SC, with Shelley Horan BL, are representing Mr McGregor and John Fitzgerald SC, with Justin McQuade BL, are for Mr Lawrence. Michael J Staines & Company is the instructing law firm for both defendants.
In his opening address, Mr Gordon said this is a case “which may seem complicated but is in fact extremely simple”. It is not a criminal trial, neither of the defendants face any criminal sanction, this is a civil trial, he said.
A person who has been victim of a wrongdoing is entitled to bring a civil action which is about a number of things, including compensation for distress, fear and when someone is violated in the way his client said she is.
Importantly, this provides a route to vindication and is the only means available to his client to have a jury say she was wronged and to vindicate her. They would hear disturbing evidence, not just of what happened, but her life since then.
Ms Ní Laimhín is frightened of Mr McGregor, is on a disability pension, no longer lives in Drimnagh and is on medication but is able to hold her head up high having called out this “appalling travesty”, he said.
The case continues.
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