A woman suing Conor McGregor for damages over alleged sexual assault has denied she was an “enthusiastic participant in sex” with him when they were in a hotel penthouse suite.
Nikita Hand told Remy Farrell SC, for Mr McGregor, that any suggestion that she consented is untrue. “He did not have sex with me, he raped me.”
The cross-examination of Ms Hand continued on Thursday, the third day of her High Court civil action for damages against Mr McGregor, a mixed martial artist, and James Lawrence, of Rafters Road, Drimnagh, over alleged separate sexual assaults of her in the Beacon hotel, Dublin, on December 9th, 2018.
Both men deny the claims and have pleaded consensual sex.
‘I’m hoping at least one girl who is on the fence about reporting her violent boyfriend ... will read about my case’
What Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens promised in 2020 - and how much they delivered
Ciara Mageean: ‘I just felt numb. It wasn’t even sadness, it was just emptiness’
Restaurateur Gráinne O’Keefe: I cut out sugar from my diet and here’s how it went
In her direct evidence, Ms Hand (35), a mother of one, said Mr McGregor pinned her down onto a bed in the penthouse suite and put her in an arm lock, choking her three times before raping her.
A hair colourist, she was at her work Christmas party the previous evening and continued partying into December 9th. The jury was told she, a female friend, Mr McGregor and Mr Lawrence took a lift from an underground car park up to the Beacon’s penthouse suite at about 12.30pm on December 9th. Ms Hand said she was drinking alcohol and took cocaine during the party and on the way to the hotel.
The jury has heard a doctor who examined her at the Rotunda Hospital’s sexual assault treatment unit on December 10th, 2018, noted bruising and abrasions over several areas on her body. She made a formal statement to gardaí on January 5th, 2019 and the DPP later decided there was insufficient evidence to bring a criminal prosecution.
In cross-examination on Thursday before a packed court, Ms Hand denied a suggestion by Mr Farrell that she went into the bathroom of the hotel bedroom on December 9th when Mr McGregor was in there, that she and the professional fighter started kissing and the belt of his jeans was open as he had been using the toilet.
She denied both took their clothes off, both were sexually excited, that she started to give him oral sex and they then had sex on the bed. She denied she had sex a second time with Mr McGregor or that she had sex with him in various positions. “None of that is true,” she said. “He did not have sex with me, he raped me.”
She denied being an “enthusiastic participant” in sex and making noises to that effect
Ms Hand also denied a suggestion that CCTV footage “flatly contradicts” her account of what happened in the hotel.
She agreed CCTV showed her, her friend, Mr McGregor and Mr Lawrence arriving at the Beacon underground car park about 12.30pm on December 9th and going up in a lift to the penthouse suite. The footage also showed all four going down in the lift from the suite about 6.12pm, herself and Mr Lawrence going back up in the lift about 6.30pm and she and Mr Lawrence leaving the hotel at 10.28pm.
Mr Farrell put to her the CCTV contradicted her claim she had no interest in “romantic entanglement”. Ms Hand agreed it showed her apparently kissing Mr Lawrence in the lift.
Mr Farrell put to her that, at this point, her own account was that she was black and blue after she had been “violently raped, partly strangled to death” and that she thought she would never see her daughter. “But you forgot all of that,” he said.
Ms Hand said: “It’s the truth.”
Ms Hand became distressed several times when asked to watch the CCTV footage, saying she had little memory of it and it had been a “very hard watch” when shown to her and the jury.
“It’s not me, not my character, I’m drunk, I’m stumbling. I don’t want to have to look at it again, it’s very disturbing for me,” she said.
It was very disturbing “because everything in it flatly contradicts what you said”, counsel said.
“No, the footage does not take away what happened to me in that room with Conor,” she said. “I know what happened to me, I was brutally raped and battered.”
The cross-examination continues.
Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
