Thursday,
November 14, 2024 - Conor
McGregor has said the woman accusing him of r@pe is 'full of lies', and
has insisted that none of the bruises covering her body was caused by him.
The Irish mixed martial arts (MMA) champion told the High Court he had
s3x with Nikita Hand twice in the penthouse of the four-star Beacon Hotel in
Dublin in December 2018, and that she was 'enthusiastic' and 'boisterous'.
He denied holding her in a chokehold, or making reference to a previous
fight he had lost three months before, and said that being accused of rape was
'frightening'.
'My life is on the line,' he said.
Mr McGregor and his friend James Lawrence have both been sued for
damages by hairdresser Nikita Hand, 35, from Drimnagh, Dublin, who alleged they
both raped her in the hotel following a cocaine- and alcohol-fuelled
after-party. Both have denied her allegation and claimed the sex was
consensual.
Asked about her extensive bruising, Mr. McGregor said he had initially
been shocked by the photographs shown to him by gardaí, 'but when I started to
piece it together, not so much'.
He said that she had flung herself fully clothed into a bath with a
'thud' and a 'swan dive' when they first entered the suite and that they had
later enjoyed 'physical, vigorous, athletic and prolonged' sex in a number of
positions.
'The sex was not rough. It was physical. It was not rough in any way,'
he said.
Mr McGregor also suggested that the hairdresser - then aged 29 - could
have bruised herself at other times between going out for her work Christmas
party on Saturday, December 8, meeting him on the following day and going to
the Rotunda Hospital on Monday, December 10.
The court heard that she was drinking heavily and had taken cocaine,
which Mr McGregor had brought to his car in a bag.
He said he had been surprised at the evidence of the advanced paramedic
who examined Ms Hand on December 10, and who told the court she had never seen
such severe bruising before.
He said he thought that was strange, given her profession.
Asked by Ms Hand's barrister, John Gordon, if he had seen such bruising
on a woman before himself, he said he had.
He denied having held Ms Hand in a headlock, or choking her three times,
as she has claimed.
Mr McGregor agreed that he had forfeited a major fight in October 2018,
having been held in a neck crank by his opponent - which he said would look
like a headlock 'to the untrained eye'.
However, he denied her claim that he told her she now knew how he had
felt during a fight in the octagon, when he had to tap out. But he said: 'No
prideful person like me would highlight my shortcomings. It's not in my nature.
It's a full-blown lie.'
Mr Gordon asked: 'You are saying she is so devious she made up a patent
lie?' 'Yes,' he replied. 'It's a lie, and it's almost a fantasy. In my head, it
feels like a fantasy.'
Asked if he had been listening to the medical evidence about bruising
around Ms Hand's neck, he said he had heard the 'SATU guy' - the doctor from
the hospital's sexual assault treatment unit - say that a mark on her neck
'could have been a love bite'. Of the choking allegation, he said: 'It
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