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A woman who accused Conor McGregor of violently r@ping her in a Dublin hotel in 2018 has won her claim against him for damages in a High Court civil case.
Mr McGregor, 36, faced an accusation that he ‘brutally r@ped and battered’ Nikita Hand, 35, at a hotel in south Dublin in December 2018.
After deliberating for six hours and 10 minutes on Friday, November 22, the jury of eight women and four men returned and found him liable of assaulting Ms Hand. They also awarded Ms Hand nearly 250,000 euros.
Mr McGregor previously told the court he had consensual s3x with Ms Hand, who is also known as Nikita Ni Laimhin, at the Beacon Hotel. He also denied causing bruising to the plaintiff.
Ms Hand, however, has lost her lawsuit against Conor McGregor’s friend, James Lawrence, who she also accused of assaulting her in a Dublin hotel in 2018.
The plaintiff Nikita Hand alleged that McGregor s3xually ass@ulted her on Dec. 9, 2018, and that another man, James Lawrence, did the same, Ireland’s high court heard during two weeks of evidence.
Hand said that she and a friend made contact with McGregor, who she knew, after a work Christmas party. She said they were driven by McGregor to a party in a penthouse room of a south Dublin hotel where drugs and alcohol were consumed.
She said McGregor took her to a bedroom in the penthouse and s3xually assaulted her.
Hand’s lawyer, John Gordon, said Hand was on antidepressants, and ‘full of drugs’ at the time of the alleged ass@ult.
While in the jury room today, the jury were given an issue paper to record their decisions. It asked two questions for them to provide a verdict on.
The first states: ‘did Mr McGregor assault Ms Hand?’
The second is ‘did Mr Lawrence assault Ms Hand?’.
They had to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’. An answer of ‘yes’ to either moves the jury to decide what damages to award Ms Hand.
McGregor testified that he never forced her to do anything and that the woman had fabricated her allegations after the two had consensual sex.
The woman’s lawyer said she never pretended to be a saint and had gone out looking for a good time that ended up turning into a nightmare.
Attorney John Gordon said McGregor was angry about a fight he had lost in Las Vegas two months earlier and took it out on his client.
“He’s not a man, he’s a coward,” Gordon told jurors. “A devious coward and you should treat him for what he is.”
The woman had to take several breaks in her emotional testimony as she said McGregor threatened to k!ll her during the encounter.
McGregor put her in a choke hold several times and later told her, “now you know how I felt in the octagon where I tapped out three times,” referring to an Ultimate Fighting Championship when he had to admit defeat, she said.
She feared she would die and never see her daughter again.
“He let me go and I remember saying I was sorry, as I felt that I did something wrong and I wanted to reassure him that I wouldn’t tell anyone so he wouldn’t hurt me again,” she said.
She said she then let him do what he wanted and he had sex with her.
Police investigated the woman’s complaint, but prosecutors declined to bring charges, saying there was insufficient evidence and a conviction was unlikely.
McGregor said the two had s3x that was athletic and vigorous, but not rough. He said “she never said ‘no’ or stopped” and testified that everything she said was a lie.
“It is a full-blown lie among many lies,” he said when asked about the chokehold allegation. “How anyone could believe that me, as a prideful person, would highlight my shortcomings.”
McGregor’s lawyer told jurors they had to set aside their animus toward the fighter.
“You may have an active dislike of him, some of you may even loathe him – there is no point pretending that the situation might be otherwise,” attorney Remy Farrell said. “I’m not asking you to invite him to Sunday brunch.”
The defense said the woman never told investigators McGregor threatened her life. They also showed surveillance video in court that they said appeared to show the woman kiss McGregor’s arm and hug him after they left the hotel room. Farrell said she looked “happy, happy, happy.”
McGregor has faced previous sexual assault allegations in the United States. In October 2023, the State Attorney’s Office of Miami said it would not pursue criminal charges against McGregor after a woman accused him of attempting to force her to perform oral s3x on him after an NBA finals game between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets.
