Report: Conor McGregor denies sexual assault accusation in civil case testimony
Conor McGregor had his day in court.
According to reports from the Irish Mirror and ESPN, the UFC superstar testified at the High Court in Dublin, Ireland, on Wednesday in regards to a civil suit in which McGregor is accused of sexually assaulting Nikita Hand. Hand claims McGregor and another alleged assailant named James Lawrence raped her in a Beacon Hotel penthouse suite in Sandyford, Dublin on Dec. 9, 2018.
At Wednesday’s hearing, McGregor vehemently denied any wrongdoing, claiming that he and Hand had a consensual sexual encounter after previously conversing online.
(NSFW: Some of the testimony below is very graphic.)
“I thought we were getting on well,” McGregor said of the encounter at a hotel, where he and Hand entered a bathroom. “She was very boisterous, very energetic, very enthusiastic as I began zipping up my trousers after using the toilet, we began kissing and became more passionate and it took off from there.
“She performed oral sex on me at that moment. We were both clothed and then began to take off our clothes. It progressed very quickly.”
Harrison has also denied the allegations.
Prior to McGregor’s testimony, Hand testified that the encounter was far more violent. She alleges that during the night in question, she was with McGregor and the fighter became increasingly aggressive. According to Irish Mirror, Hand recalled that she and a woman named Danielle indulged in drugs and alcohol provided by McGregor, and that the party was “just being silly.”
At some point, Hand felt endangered when she became isolated with McGregor and his security.
“I remember security guard over by the window and another security guard closing the door between the two rooms,” Hand said. “I remember panicking. Why is there three men in the room, and I’m the only one in here?
“I also remember walking into the bedroom area and I remember walking the two rooms looking around and Conor was in the bathroom and he said something inappropriate to me. He told me to suck on that.”
Hand claims McGregor then made physical advances on her, which she attempted to fend off (she denies that any sex between them was consensual, referring to the account proposed by McGregor’s legal team as a “made-up story”). On Day 2 of her testimony, Hand gave her account of the alleged rape.
“He then pinned me down,” Hand said. “He put his whole body weight on top of me and I couldn’t breathe. I tried my best to get away from him. I was trying to wiggle my way out, do whatever I could. I remember biting him really hard. I remember his arm around me and choking me.
“I was trying to fight as much as I could. I bit him, and he didn’t like it, it was like he was just behind me then. He choked me, put his arm around me. I just remember him behind me and I think I was sitting on the bed. He put his arm around my neck and choked me three times.”
Several witnesses, including a doctor called to the stand, described Hand as having visible injuries afterwards to her jawline, neck, arms, legs, fingers, knuckles, buttocks, and right breast. Hand’s legal team later shared a text exchange in which she told a friend, “My tampon is stuck inside me so I had to remove it. Never going out again,” a situation she attributes to the alleged assault.
Hand also testified that she feared for her life during the assault.
“I just froze and I couldn’t move and I couldn’t breathe,” Hand said. “I looked at the bedpost and was thinking about my daughter. I kept thinking I was going to die and I was never going to see my daughter again. ... I just completely thought I was going to die.”
“He let me go and I remember I was saying sorry to him,” she continued. “Saying I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It felt like I’d done something wrong. I kept saying sorry...so he wouldn’t hurt me again.
“Then he said that’s how he felt when ‘I was in the octagon and I had to tap myself out three times.’ I just thought it was such a weird thing to say. I promised him I wouldn’t tell anything. I just let him do what he needed to do to survive. My mind was completely gone. He was aggressive, pulling my clothes. Dragging out of my clothes.”
Though Hand struggled to recall specifics of the events following the alleged assault, she distinctly remembered identifying her assailant when later talking to a friend.
“Whatever I told [my friend], I was obviously very confused,” Hand said. “I told her I was raped and battered and that was the main detail.
“I do remember telling her it was Conor McGregor,” she added when further questioned.
On Wednesday, Day 6 of the civil trial, McGregor took the stand and issued a number of denials in regards to the allegations.
“I will tell you where she didn’t get them, from me,” McGregor said of the bruising on Hand’s body. “I would say the sex with me was athletic, physical, and it was prolonged and it was in a multitude of positions.
“I had my hands on hips, buttocks, back of legs, no time did I go near her neck. At no time did I bite her, did she bite me. At no time did I scrape her, nor did she scrape me.”
McGregor added that it was “lies and more lies” as far as his having made sexual advances towards Hand. He also did not recall the alleged victim wearing a tampon.
“There was none,” McGregor said. “If there was, and she was on her cycle, I would not have had sex with Nikita Hand.”
Hand claims that the alleged assault left her with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and damaged her mental health to the point that she has been unable to return to work. Dr. Ann Leader, a psychologist, testified that Hand was “anxious, tearful, and in my opinion, came across as someone who was traumatized” following an examination.
Leader added, “[Hand] withdrew from life, felt unable to be present for her mother, her child and her partner” and that Hand’s PTSD manifested in the form of “nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks.”
“Your client is full of lies,” McGregor said Wednesday to Hand’s lawyer, according to ESPN. “Everything is a lie.”
The Dublin sexual assault allegations first surfaced on Dec. 12, 2018. In January 2021, it was reported that no charges were filed against McGregor following a two-year investigation by Irish police and McGregor was not prosecuted. However, a personal injury case was filed that same month, and this past October, a date of Nov. 5 was set for a civil trial to begin with the woman later identified as Hand seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
The trial was to begin in the summer, but was delayed when McGregor was booked to fight Michael Chandler at UFC 303 on June 29. McGregor ended up withdrawing from that bout due to injury and Chandler was later rescheduled for a rematch against Charles Oliveira, which takes place at UFC 309 this Saturday.