Conor McGregor has lost his civil jury appeal against a sexual assault conviction. In November, McGregor was forced to pay £206,000 in damages and costs to Nikita Hand, who accused him of raping her in a Dublin hotel in 2018. McGregor appealed, claiming that his lawyers believed his answers to police during interviews should not have been shown to the jury. His lawyer also claimed that a question on the “issue paper” handed to the jury to help them decide their decision should have been phrased differently. Three senior justices on the Court of case in Dublin dismissed the case on all grounds. Conor McGregor did not appear in court for the ruling.
Nikita Hand attended the hearing along with a number of supporters. The court determined that McGregor’s counsel had not demonstrated “a real risk of unfair trial” in connection to the police interviews. During the original case, the jury heard McGregor say “no comment” almost 100 times while being interviewed by police.
The problem paper questioned jurors whether Conor McGregor had assaulted Ms Hand. McGregor’s lawyers contended that “sexual assault” should have been used instead of “assault”. However, the appeal judges stated that it was “simply unreal” to believe that any member of the jury could have become confused about the meaning of the question. They unanimously decided that McGregor’s appeal should be dismissed “in its entirety”. McGregor’s companion, James Lawrence, also lost his appeal against the decision to pay costs, despite the jury finding that he did not assault Nikita Hand.
Ms Hand claimed in her lawsuit that Conor McGregor and James Lawrence both raped her. The males said they both had consensual sex with her.
‘Retraumatised me repeatedly.
Speaking outside court, Ms Hand expressed her gratitude for the assistance she has received during the civil lawsuit. “This appeal has retraumatised me over and over again, being forced to relive it, what happened has had a huge impact on me,” she told the jury. Ms Hand urged survivors not to be silent, stating that they deserve to be heard and receive justice. Today, I can finally move forward and try to heal.”
What was the reason behind McGregor’s appeal?
The appeal was based on various grounds raised at the civil trial at Dublin’s High Court last year. On the issue paper, they mentioned the question “did Conor McGregor assault Nikita Hand?” which was asked of the jury. Conor McGregor’s legal team claimed it should have included sexual assault. However, a counsel for Ms Hand stated that “assault” refers to a wide range of attacks, adding that “what we were dealing with was assault by rape”. He said that the issue posed to the jury “was agreed upon, and the jury could not have been confused by it”.
McGregor was contesting the treatment of his interviews with gardaí (Irish police). McGregor’s legal team stated that the jury heard roughly 100 “no comment” responses to gardaí. His counsel said he had a right to silence in police interviews, but it was “left hanging,” allowing the jury to draw an adverse inference. Ms Hand’s legal team responded to this argument by stating that if this had been such a major matter for McGregor at the time, “surely an application to discharge the jury would have been made”. Her barrister denied that such an application was made. McGregor’s legal appeal also raised concerns regarding the judge’s charge to the jury in the civil trial.
withdrawal of evidence At the start of the process, Ireland’s Court of Appeal was informed that McGregor had withdrawn his plea to have new evidence included into the appeal. Samantha O’Reilly and Steven Cummins, former neighbours of Nikita Hand, provided the requested evidence. A previous preliminary hearing revealed that they claimed to have witnessed a fight between Ms Hand and her former lover Stephen Redmond in December 2018. McGregor told the court that the new evidence revealed that bruising on Nikita Hand’s body could have been caused by her former partner.
Ms Hand stated in an affidavit that the charges were false and deceptive. The senior justices found it “somewhat mysterious” that a “important and contentious” aspect of the appeal had been “cast aside”. They granted Ms Hand costs for this element of the case.
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