Woman 'devastated' by DPP decision not to bring charges

A woman who alleges she was raped by mixed martial arts fighter, Conor McGregor at a Dublin Hotel six years ago has said she was "absolutely devastated" and let down when the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute him.

Nikita Hand told a jury in her civil action against Mr McGregor and another man, James Lawrence, that Mr McGregor choked her three times and then raped her on 9 December 2018.

Under cross-examination, she agreed that she had lied to her then-boyfriend that day about where she was going and who she was going with.

Mr McGregor, and Mr Lawrence of Rafter's Road in Drimnagh, deny Ms Hand’s claims.

Nikita Hand was in the witness box for the second day of her action for damages against Mr McGregor and Mr Lawrence.

She became extremely upset on a number of occasions as she gave her evidence, and the court was adjourned several times.

She told the jury that on the morning of 9 December, she was in the Beacon Hotel in Sandyford with her friend, Danielle, along with Conor McGregor and James Lawrence.

She and Danielle had been at their work Christmas party, and were very drunk, and had also taken cocaine.

She described how Mr McGregor pinned her down on a bed in a room in the penthouse suite of the hotel.

She said she could not breathe, but the more she struggled, the more Mr McGregor liked it.

She bit him, and after that, she said he put his arm around her neck from behind and choked her three times.

She said she thought she was going to die and would never see her daughter again. She said she kept looking at the bedposts and thinking about her daughter.

She said Mr McGregor let her go, and she kept saying sorry to him, to reassure him that she would not tell anyone so he would not hurt her again.

She told her counsel, Ray Boland that Mr McGregor remarked to her - "That’s how I felt when I was in the Octagon and I had to tap myself out three times", which she thought was "just a weird thing to say".

After that, she said she just let Mr McGregor do "whatever he needed to do" so she would survive.

She said her mind was completely gone, and she was not herself anymore.

Ms Hand described Mr McGregor being really aggressive with her, shoving her head down for her to his penis. She said she was pulling her head back, and he was "really aggressive, dragging out of my clothes."

At some stage, they were both naked, and Ms Hand told the court Mr McGregor raped her. She said while he was raping her, she was completely numb and did not feel anything. She said she "completely froze".

Ms Hand said when it was over, she sat on the side of the bed and started to put her clothes on, but Mr McGregor told her to lie down with him for a while and she might fall asleep.

Ms Hand said she woke in a panic and got her phone to text her boyfriend as she was concerned, he would be worried about her. She told him she was "having a great time," and was "so drunk," as she did not want to worry him.

Everyone was leaving the hotel room, Ms Hand said. Mr McGregor said there were cars to take people home.

He left with her friend Danielle, and she was going home with James Lawrence because she lived his way, she said. However, despite going down to the car park in the lift, she and James went back up to the room.

Ms Hand said that back in the room reality hit, and she remembered looking at her arms. She said she asked Mr Lawrence if they all "put a blind eye to what Conor does to women".

Mr Lawrence asked her if she was trying to say Conor had done that to her. When she said he had, she said he put his hand up to his head and told her he could not believe she was in that room, and he was there while that was happening to her. She said one minute she was OK, and the next she was crying.

He told her to relax and calm down and that he would get her some food.

Ms Hand said she remembered then waking up in a taxi and going to a friend’s house, as she said she did not want to go home and face the reality of telling her boyfriend what had happened.

She said her friend was really upset for her and told her not to go home and have a shower and to ring the Rape Crisis Centre. She said her friend was shocked by how much bruising was on her body.

She noticed afterwards, bruising on her arms, legs and bum and a really big bruise and scrape on her chest. She said this was caused by her own watch when she was pinned down and trying to defend herself.

Ms Hand said her friend took photographs of her injuries, but she got her to delete them as she had decided she did not want to press charges and did not want anyone to know what had happened.

The next morning, she went to her mother’s house, and her mother called an ambulance, which took her to the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in the Rotunda Hospital.

The jury heard details of texts Ms Hand sent to another friend where she described being "raped and battered" and said her body was "black and blue".

She told her friend she was traumatised and was "so scared". She described her examination in the SATU as "the worst thing she ever had to go through".

The jury has heard that she had to have a tampon removed from her vagina by forceps, and she told her friend this was "really painful".

Ms Hand went to gardaí in January 2019 and made a statement. She made a further statement in February 2019, after being told that James Lawrence had told gardaí that he had sex with her on the same day in the hotel room.

Ms Hand told the court she had no memory of this and was in shock at hearing this as she had believed Mr Lawrence was looking out for her.

She said she and her friend had been in the hotel to have fun, and it was a "different type of party" to what they had been expecting.

The court heard she lasted in work for about three to five months after the incident, and her relationship ended around six months afterwards. She said her mental health deteriorated completely, and she no longer lives in Drimnagh.

Live: Updates as they happen

When she was told that the DPP would not be prosecuting either Conor McGregor or James Lawrence, she said she felt "absolutely devastated and let down."

The court heard she sought a review of the DPP's decision, but it was upheld.

In correspondence, Ms Hand suggested that the DPP was not prosecuting because one of the suspects was a famous person. In response, the DPP's office said the Director herself had reviewed the file, that the case was very complex and that there was no reasonable prospect of conviction for either man.

Ms Hand was shown a compilation of CCTV clips from Sunday, 9 December. In the clips, she and her friend Danielle are seen getting into a car in the car park of the Goat pub in Goatstown.

She said Conor McGregor was in the car, and they spent several hours driving around. She said she was not told where they were going.

Eventually, they ended up with James Lawrence at the Beacon Hotel in Sandyford. CCTV footage shows Ms Hand, Mr McGregor, Mr Lawrence and Danielle Kealy in a lift going up to the room.

That evening, the footage shows Mr McGregor and Danielle leaving but Ms Hand and Mr Lawrence returning to the hotel. There are multiple clips of Ms Hand and Mr Lawrence in a lift from the car park.

Ms Hand became very upset and told the court she did not remember any of it. She said she looked "very very drunk" and said it was hard to watch as she had no memory of it.

In some of the clips, Ms Hand gets up off the ground. In other clips, she has her arms around Mr Lawrence. She told Mr Boland, that she would not have sex if she was on her period, especially if she had a tampon in.

Under cross-examination by Mr McGregor’s counsel, Remy Farrell, Ms Hand admitted that she had lied to her boyfriend that morning about where she was going and who she was going with after making contact with Mr McGregor on Instagram.

She agreed she had had around nine bottles of beer and three Bacardis at her Christmas party, as well as cocaine, and said, "Conor was a moment of madness". She said she had lied to her boyfriend as she did not want him to worry him.

She agreed she had lied again to her boyfriend that evening after the alleged rape when she told him she was still in the Goat pub.

Her cross-examination will continue tomorrow.