A woman who alleges she was raped by mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor broke down in tears and started shaking as she resumed giving evidence today in her civil action against him and one of his associates.
Nikita Hand (35) twice sought breaks from giving evidence when her case resumed this morning.
Mother-of-one Hand, a hair colourist from Drimnagh in Dublin, was in tears from the outset as her counsel Ray Boland SC resumed taking her through her evidence.
In an action for damages, Ms Hand claims she was raped by McGregor (36) and his associate James Lawrence in a penthouse suite at the Beacon Hotel in Dubin on December 9, 2018.
She had told the court yesterday how McGregor pinned her down on a bed in the penthouse shortly after she refused to perform oral sex on him.
Ms Hand was asked by Mr Boland to continue her account of events.
In tears, she told the court: “He pinned me down to the bed, pressed his whole body weight down on me so I couldn’t breathe.”
Within seconds of resuming, Ms Hand was shaking, tearful and struggling to stay composed.
“I couldn’t get up or breathe,” she continued.
“The more I tried to struggle and tried to get away, the more he liked it. He said: ‘I like that’.”
Nikita Hand outside the High Court in Dublin. Photo: PA
Ms Hand told the presiding judge, Mr Justice Alexander Owens, that she was trying her best to give evidence.
“I am really sorry,” she told the judge as she broke down in tears.
She continued: “The only thing I could move was my head. My only defence was to bite.”
Ms Hand told Mr Boland she bit McGregor, but she was not sure what part of his body she bit.
She said McGregor “didn’t like it” and “flipped” her around.
Ms Hand sought a break to compose herself just three minutes into her evidence. She briefly left the courtroom and resumed her evidence a few minutes later.
“I remember his arm around me and choking me,” she said.
“I couldn’t move. I was trying to fight as much as I could.”
Ms Hand continued: “He put his arm around my neck and choked me three times.
“I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I just looked at the bedpost.
“I kept thinking I was going to die and I would never see my daughter again.”
Ms Hand said that while McGregor had her pinned down, he told her: “That’s how I felt when I was in the Octagon when I had to tap myself out three times.”
She told Mr Boland: “I thought it was such a weird thing to say.”
She said McGregor was “really aggressive, pulling at her clothes and pushing her head down towards his penis.
“I just let him do whatever he needed to do so I could survive,” she said.
She said he pulled off her black jumpsuit and they were both naked.
“He pushed me down and he raped me. I just completely froze,” she said.
“He raped me. He put his penis inside me, in my vagina. I was lying down at that point, on my back. That felt like it was going on for ages. Then it was over. It was done.”
Ms Hand said McGregor eventually let her go and that she repeatedly said “sorry” to him.
“I felt I had done something wrong. I remember saying ‘sorry’ to him to reassure him I wouldn’t tell anyone,” she said.
Ms Hand told the court she noticed bruising on her upper arms, her legs, backside and a “big scrape” on her breast, caused by her watch being pressed against it in the struggle.
“I started to put my clothes on and he told me: ‘Lie down here with me for a few minutes’, and I fell asleep,” she said.
Ms Hand told Mr Boland she was in the middle of her period at the time and had been wearing a tampon when she was raped.
She said she “woke up in a panic” and asked McGregor what time it was, but neither her watch nor his were working.
She went to her bag to tell the time from her phone and texted her then partner Stephen as she knew he would be worried when she hadn’t come home.
“I told him: ‘I’m having a great time, I’m so drunk’. I didn’t want to worry him,” Ms Hand said.
Lawrence and her friend Danielle had been in another room in the penthouse, when the rape allegedly occurred.
McGregor arranged for cars to bring them all home.
While McGregor and Danielle left in one car, Ms Hand was to travel home with Lawrence as they lived near each other.
However, she told the court that after McGregor and Danielle left via the hotel’s underground carpark, she and Lawrence went back to the penthouse.
Ms Hand told Mr Boland she remembered asking Lawrence: “Do you all put blind eyes to what Conor does to women?”
She said Lawrence replied: “What are you trying to say? Conor done that to you?
“I can’t believe I was in that room and I was here while Conor did that to you.”
Ms Hand said she remembered food being ordered to the room, a burger and chips, but didn’t remember eating it.
The next thing she remembered was waking up in a taxi.
She said she tried unsuccessfully to make contact with her friend Jennifer Redmond, her then partner Stephen’s sister.
“I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to face Stephen and the reality of what happened,” she said.
Ms Hand said she contacted Eimer Brennan, the manager of the salon where she worked, as she had to give her keys to the premises.
“I remember arriving at Eimer’s house and telling her what happened,” she said.
She told Mr Boland she also told Ms Brennan who was involved.
“She told me she was very upset for me. She told me not to go home and have a shower and to ring the rape crisis centre,” said Ms Hand.
“She was just shocked how much bruising was on her body.”
McGregor and Lawrence deny Ms Hand’s claims and say that what transpired that day was consensual.
In defence papers, they allege a claim for damages so she can relocate to a new home amounted to extortion.
The case, which is being heard by a jury of four men and eight women, is due to last two weeks.