Woman in sex assault civil action against Conor McGregor claims he 'choked her three times'

A woman has alleged to the High Court that UFC star Conor McGregor choked her three times before she gave up and he “raped” her.

Former hair colourist Nikita Hand (35), who is originally from Drimnagh in Dublin, is seeking damages in a civil case for an alleged assault she says she suffered at the hands of Mr McGregor (36) and James Lawrence at the penthouse suite of the Beacon Hotel on February 9, 2018.

Ms Hand told the jury of four men and eight women that she looked at the bedpost and thought she would never see her daughter again - after she had bitten the Mixed Martial Artist and “tried my best to get away from him.”

“He raped me. He put his penis inside me,” she told the court on Wednesday. Asked by her Counsel Ray Boland SC where she said Mr McGregor put his penis she responded: “In my vagina.”

READ MORE: All updates from second day of Conor McGregor civil case over alleged sex assault

READ MORE: Woman in sex assault civil action against Conor McGregor allegedly told doctor she thought he was going to kill her

She told the court the alleged assault “felt like it was going on for ages,” and when asked by Mr Boland if he hurt her anywhere she said: “When he was raping me I was completely numb. I didn’t feel anything. But he hurt me when he choked me, pressing down on my body. I just completely froze.”

The court also heard that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) decided in mid 2020 not to bring any charges against Mr McGregor - something Ms Hand said left her “devastated” and telling the court she “felt let down.” Ms Hand, who was twice interviewed by gardai in 2019, said she wrote a letter, with the help of the Rape Crisis Centre, calling on the DPP to review its decision.

She also told the DPP she was “shocked and very disappointed” and felt she was being “treated differently to other victims because one of the suspects is a famous person.”

In August of 2020 the DPP responded by stating that its lawyer considered if there was “sufficient evidence available” and in this case “considered a number of offences” including rape and assault. The DPP told Ms Hand that its lawyer “carefully considered the evidence” and concluded there was “insufficient evidence to prosecute.”

Ms Hand told the DPP in a follow up letter that month that she was “very disappointed and upset with the content” of their letter and stated that at no time had it “given me any real reasons as to why the DPP are not prosecuting.”

Mr Boland told the court that Ms Hand went to her solicitor in October 2020 to initiate her civil claim. On November 3 the DPP wrote again to Ms Hand and told her that after a review it found that the “decision not to prosecute was correct and should stand.”

The DPP told Ms Hand that evidence must be strong enough so a jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt, and stated that in this case there was not a “reasonable prospect of a conviction.” The DPP said Ms Hand’s accounts to the gardai and other people were “carefully considered” and noted that she had no recollection of intercourse with James Lawrence - who is now the co respondent in this High Court case.

The DPP also cited that Ms Hand described in her statements the amount of alcohol and drugs she consumed. It said this was not about a question “of who we as prosecutors believe,” but “the strength of the evidence to secure conviction.”

It further said that in coming to its conclusion not to prosecute, the Director was advised by senior counsel. It also rejected Ms Hand’s claim that she was in any way treated differently because one of the suspect’s was famous, and stated it could assure her the “identity of the suspects had no bearing.”

Earlier in the afternoon Ms Hand was continuing to give her account of the alleged assault she says occurred in the Beacon Hotel penthouse suite when she was alone with Conor McGregor. After “biting him really hard” she said she could remember him putting his arm around her, “choking” her.

“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. I just froze and I couldn’t move and I couldn’t breathe. 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,” she told the court.

She further claimed that Mr McGregor pinned her to the bed. “He pinned me down to the bed and pressed his whole body weight on top of me so that I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move or breathe. The more I tried to get away and struggle the more he liked it.

She said: “I’m finding this really hard, I’m sorry,” she said. Ms Hand asked for a five minute break - and the matter resumed shortly after.

She went on to allege that McGregor “flipped” her around and “choked” her after “my only defence was to bite.”

“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.” The third choke she said lasted longer and was “more strong.” “I just completely thought I was going to die.”

Ms Hand claimed McGregor then let her go and she recalled “saying sorry to him.” “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.”

She further claimed that she promised McGregor she “wouldn’t tell anything” and she then “just let him do what he needed to do to survive.” At this point she said he “raped” her - and confirmed that afterwards she noticed bruising on hr arms and when she went to a friend’s house - she could see further bruising and a scrape on her breast.

Ms Hand said the scratch was caused by her watch which she said cut her as she held her arms up as McGregor pressed down on her.
The Michael Kors watch was displayed in court and handed over to the jury as an exhibit in the case.

Asked to recount what occurred next, Ms Hand said she remembered that McGregor got off me and “it was done.” She claimed he told her to lie down next to him and that she fell asleep. Sometime later she claimed she woke up, went to her phone in her bag and texted her then partner ‘Ste’ - telling him she was “having a great time.

“I just didn’t want to worry him,” Ms Hand told the court. She said she was then confused because when she woke up “everybody was leaving,” and she recalled asking why and saying to them “let’s have a drink.” She alleged she, Conor McGregor, James Lawrence and her friend Danielle then went down to the lift.

She said she remembered McGregor and Danielle leaving and that she and James went back into the room. “I remember getting back up into the room and I remember breaking down then. It’s like it all came back to me. Reality was kind of hitting.” She claimed she then turned around to Mr Lawrence and said that he and others “all turned a blind eye to what Conor was doing” to her.

She alleged she showed James her arm and he responded by saying: “I can’t believe I was here and you were in that room while that was happening to you.” Ms Hand said she remembered waking up in a taxi after this and that she did not want to go home to “face reality” and tell then partner Stephen what allegedly happened.

She stated she realised that her friend needed the salon keys back so she contacted her and went to her house on the evening of December 9. She claimed she told her friend Emer what had happened and she advised her not to go home and have a shower and to ring the rape crisis centre.

Ms Hand alleged her friend took photos of her bruising - and that the next day she asked her to delete them. The jury was then shown a number of text messages sent between Ms Hand and her friend Jennifer on the morning of December 10.

Among the messages Ms Hand told Jennifer at 11:12 am that she was “not one bit ok” and that she was “traumatised.” In further messages she texted her at 11:15am that she was “raped” and that her body was “black and blue.” She told Jennifer that morning that a “tampon is stuck inside me so I had to remove it,” and stated she was “never going out again.”

In later messages Ms Hand texted Jennifer that she was “not pressing charges 100 per cent,” and stated she was “lucky to be alive, he strangled me that hard.” In messages Jennifer told Ms Hand she was upset for her and if she did not want to press charges that was her decision to make. She stated to Jennifer that “it’s too traumatising and he will probably get away with it.

In further messages that day Ms Hand texted Jennifer saying the man “strangled her” and that after the third time “I gave in and let him do what he wanted.” Jennifer stated in response that he was a f*cking scumbag, and was sent a photo of bruising by Ms Hand who said she was “fearing for my life,” and asked her not to say a word. She told Jennifer that she did know her alleged attacker but “can’t say who it is.”

Brought through the events of what she claims happened when she went home after the alleged assault, ms hand said she told her partner what happened “But I didn’t tell him who it was. She then went to her mother’s home the next morning and when she saw her she phoned an ambulance, she said.

Ms Hand told the court that gardai arrived before the ambulance and that she was “freaked out,” “didn’t want them to be there,” and that she at this point “didn’t want to press charges. She got into an ambulance where she said she was “having panic attacks,”
before she was brought into the Rotunda Hospital.

“They put me into a room with just like guards in and out or detectives asking me loads of questions. I just kept saying I didn’t want to press charges. I wasn’t telling them what the circumstances were,” Ms Hand said. She stated she was then brought up to the Sexual Assault Trauma Unit where she said she experienced “the worst thing I ever had to go through.”

Ms Hand said after this gardai were “in and out” of her mother’s home and that what had occurred was “in the papers” and that she was “afraid for my life.”

Before Christmas Ms Hand said she was about to attempt to go to Crumlin garda station but she could not go through with it and had a panic attack. She told the court that she wanted to experience as normal a Christmas as possible and then after that she would make a statement - which the court heard she ultimately did on January 5, 2019.

In the garda station Ms hand said she was shown ‘stills’ by gardai and she was told she left the hotel in a car and came back - and that James Lawrence had said “I had sex with him as well.” Ms Hand said she told gardai she had “ no memory whatsoever of that,” and was “shocked” to hear the allegation.

“I never had a problem with James. I just thought James was looking out for me and then he says things like that,” she told the court.
“I was just in complete shock. We were just there to have fun. I wasn’t there to have sex with anyone or anything like that. When we got to the hotel it was a different type of party. It wasn’t what we were expecting.”

Ms Hand went on to talk about the alleged aftermath, saying she attempted to go back to work for about a month but ended up leaving because her mental health “deteriorated completely.” She told the court that at this stage it was in the papers and that people would talk about it in the salon and not realise it was about her.

Ms Hand further stated that she did not feel great about living in the Drimnagh area and that she “never wants to live there again.”
She confirmed to Counsel that she no longer lives at the address she shared with her then partner Stephen - who she said she split with six months after the alleged assault. She qualified for disability allowance and briefly took up a part time job as a cleaner.

In February of this year she attempted to get back into hair colouring but was then certified “unit to work” by a GP, the court heard.
She told the court that she cannot afford to see a counsellor every week and that her sessions cost her about E100 each. Ms Hand said she met her new partner in 2021, and that he is “extremely supportive” of her.

In the afternoon the jury was shown a 45 minute montage of CCTV footage from December 9 - at locations such as the salon car park, and various areas of the Beacon Hotel. The first piece of footage showed a car picking up Ms Hand and her friend at 10:14am before leaving two minutes later. Footage from the underground car park of the Beacon Hotel showed a car coming in with another behind it at 12:16pm.

Footage of a door to the lifts then showed a man identified to the court as being “security”, James Lawrence, Conor McGregor, Nikita Hand and her friend Danielle, and another security man entering through the doors at 12:17pm. Further footage showed the inside of the lift with Mr McGregor seen with Ms Hand and the others inside. Footage was also shown of a security guard in the lift at 4:27pm, with Counsel telling the court there is no dispute that he was going to the shop to “buy condoms.” At 4:35pm he is seen back in the lift with the condoms.

Later footage at 6:13pm showed Danielle, McGregor, Ms Hand and Mr Lawrence going through the door into the car park. At this point the court was told Mr McGregor and Danielle left and Ms Hand confirmed that the two people seen left in the footage are her and Mr Lawrence. Further footage at 6:27 showed Ms Hand on the phone in the underground car park, and getting up off the ground - both of which she said she had no recollection of.

Ms Hand repeatedly told the court that the remaining footage of her and Mr Lawrence repeatedly going up and down in the lift and into the hotel was “really hard for me to watch because I can’t remember any of it at all.” In the late afternoon Remy Farrell SC for Conor McGregor began his cross examination of Ms Hand, asking her about the Christmas party she had and whether she and her friend Danielle were the last ones left in the salon at 7am in the morning.

“You were the hardcore of the party as it were?” he asked Ms Hand, who said yes. Referring to Ms Hand’s interview with Garda Detective Inspector Peter Woods on January 5th, Mr Farrell said she had stated she had consumed nine bottles of beer and three bacardis and that some cocaine was taken as well.

“This was a fairly significant night out. Some people would call it a bit of a bender is that right,” Mr Farrell asked the witness. Ms Hand responded by saying she “let her hair down” that night and that “when I did go out I did enjoy myself.

“I didn’t want to tell Ste the truth. “I didn’t want to tell him I was going to a party with Conor,” Ms Hand told the court. Mr Farrell says Ste replied saying: ‘You’re still in the salon now, where is ye going’ “He’s asking the question where are you going.”

Ms Hand affirmed and said “Is it ok if I go out with the girls.” Mr Farrell “that wasn’t really the case at all”. Mr Farrell also put it to the witness if she was saying she never heard McGregor tell his driver where they were going while they were in the car. Mr Farrell said as he understood her evidence she was “slightly troubled” as to where she was going.

“You never managed to hear him say to the driver, take me here, take me there,” he asked, to which Ms Hand said no. Mr Farrell also put it to the witness that she had previously told “various people” that this alleged assault happened in the Morgan Hotel in Dublin city centre - and not the Beacon in Sandyford.

Ms Hand said she did not know where she was going but said that the interior of the hotel reminded her of the Morgan Hotel.

“A lot of people might be surprised that someone mistakes Sandyford for Temple Bar,” Mr Farrell stated to Ms Hand. The witness said she thought the interior “looked the exact same” and that when she told people it was the Morgan Hotel, they had asked her a question and she answered. “That’s all I knew,” she said.

Mr Farrell also put it to the witness whether she could be mistaken about going to her bag, taking out her phone and texting her then partner Ste after waking up next to McGregor on December 9. “You swear to it?” Mr Farrell asked her, to which she said yes.
The case resumes tomorrow.

Join the Irish Mirror’s breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link to receive breaking news and the latest headlines direct to your phone. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.