Nikita Hand is facing cross-examination by lawyers for Conor McGregor as part of his appeal against a High Court civil jury finding in favour of Ms Hand, who alleged the mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter raped her in a Dublin hotel in 2018.
Ms Hand is expected to be in the Court of Appeal on Tuesday when the appeal opens before the three-judge court, comprising Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, Mr Justice Brian O’Moore and Mr Justice Michael MacGrath.
The appeal hearing is listed for up to three days.
Mr McGregor has appealed against a High Court civil jury’s finding last November that he assaulted Ms Hand in the Beacon Hotel, Sandyford, Dublin, on December 9th, 2018. The jury awarded Ms Hand almost €250,000 damages.
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In evidence to the High Court, Ms Hand, a 36-year-old mother-of-one, said Mr McGregor raped her when she and a friend went with Mr McGregor and a friend of his, James Lawrence, to the hotel.
She said she told Mr McGregor she did not want to have intercourse with him, she felt uncomfortable, but he “would not take no for an answer”. She was wearing a tampon at the time and would not have sex during her period, she said.
Mr McGregor denied rape and said he and Ms Hand had “fully consensual”, “vigorous”, “athletic” sex. He said he was shocked when later shown photos of bruising on Ms Hand, that he had not caused them and that there was no tampon present.
When charging the jury, Mr Justice Alexander Owens told them, if a person proves they were subject by another person to non-consensual sexual activity, that is the tort – a civil wrong causing harm or loss leading to legal liability – of assault.
The jury found Mr McGregor had assaulted Ms Hand.
It found Mr Lawrence (35), of Rafter’s Road, Drimnagh, had not assaulted her. She had alleged he assaulted her by having sex with her without her consent in the hotel.
Mr McGregor’s grounds of appeal are wide-ranging, including claims over the conduct of the 12-day hearing by Mr Justice Owens.
Some grounds focus on whether the trial judge erred in directing that the jury be asked to answer whether or not Mr McGregor “assaulted” Ms Hand rather than “sexually assaulted” her.
As part of his appeal, Mr McGregor has provided affidavits by Samantha O’Reilly and her partner Steven Cummins, former neighbours of Ms Hand when she lived in Drimnagh.
Ms Hand, in a replying affidavit, has described as “lies” claims by Ms O’Reilly that bruising on her body, which she alleges was caused by Mr McGregor in the hotel on December 9th, 2018, may have been caused during an alleged row between Ms Hand and her then partner in their home hours later.
In her affidavit, Ms Hand said her then partner, Stephen Redmond, did not assault her on the night of December 9th/10th 2018, “and never assaulted me in the course of our relationship, or since”.
She and Mr Redmond had had a verbal argument downstairs in their house that night, a recording of which was played during the High Court case, but that was not so loud that Ms O’Reilly could have heard it, she also said.
The appeal court will decide, during the full hearing of the appeal, whether the affidavits from Ms O’Reilly and Mr Cummins, sworn last January, are admissible.
It will also decide whether an affidavit from a former Northern Ireland state pathologist, Dr Jack Crane, is admissible for the appeal.
Mr McGregor claims that a report from Dr Crane, who was asked by the McGregor side to review material from the trial, is supportive of the credibility of the claims made by Ms O’Reilly and Mr Cummins.
Michael Staines, solicitor for Mr McGregor, will give evidence concerning the circumstances in which those two witnesses, whose affidavits were sworn last January, came forward.
Ms O’Reilly has alleged that, on the night of December 9th/10th, 2018, she had observed from the upstairs window of her house a row between Ms Hand and Mr Redmond. Ms O’Reilly said she inferred, from movements of Ms Hand’s body, that Mr Redmond had assaulted her on the ground, and that this explained the bruising on her body seen the next day.
The MMA fighter had persistently denied he assaulted Ms Hand and claims the new material came into his possession after the High Court case and provides a “plausible” explanation for bruising on Ms Hand’s body.
The extensive bruising seen on Ms Hand’s body when examined by a doctor in the Rotunda hospital in Dublin the day after her encounter with Mr McGregor was significant evidence in the High Court case. Gardaí took photos of the bruising on Tuesday, December 11th, 2018.
An appeal by Mr Lawrence against the trial judge’s refusal to order Ms Hand to pay his legal costs of the trial will be heard alongside Mr McGregor’s appeal.
The jury was told by Mr McGregor that he had paid his friend’s costs for the High Court hearing.
