Woman accuses famous cage fighter Conor McGregor of raping her during a civil trial in Ireland was found to be “very bruised” immediately after the alleged attack, a paramedic who treated her told the High Court in Dublin.
Nikita Hand claims McGregor assaulted and raped her in a Dublin hotel room in December 2018.
McGregor, a flamboyant mixed martial artist who was once a world champion and one of the highest-paid athletes on the planet, has denied all accusations.
Brian Lawless/AP
“I’ve never seen anyone with this much bruising, with this intensity of bruising,” paramedic Eithne Scully told the Irish court, according to CBS News partner network BBC News, which had a reporter in the room. courtroom.
Scully said Hand had a cut on his chin and bruising around his lower neck, as well as his chest, legs, buttocks and thighs.
The jury was shown a video of Hand being treated by Scully, showing some of her injuries, the BBC said.
The Irish High Court began hearing evidence in the civil case last week. Under Irish law, neither the accuser nor the accused are entitled to anonymity in civil cases, unlike criminal prosecutions.
Irish public broadcaster RTÉ reported that Hand had already initiated criminal proceedings against McGregor in 2020, but that the Director of Public Prosecutions had refused to take up the case, saying there was no reasonable prospect to condemn McGregor.
Appearing in the witness box last week, Hand said she attended a Christmas party at a Dublin hotel in 2018, during which she drank alcohol and took cocaine with McGregor, according to RTÉ. Hand told the court that McGregor forced her to lie down on a bed in the hotel’s penthouse suite and that she could not breathe at that point.
She bit him, she said, then he allegedly put his arm around her neck and strangled her three times. Hand told the court she thought she was going to die and would never see her daughter again.
Hand said she then let McGregor do “whatever he needed to do” so she could survive, at which point he raped her, according to RTÉ’s account of his testimony.
Hand was accused of spreading “a web of lies” by McGregor’s defense team last week during cross-examination.
BBC News said McGregor’s lawyers accused Hand of attempted extortion in the civil case. Remy Farrell, McGregor’s defense attorney, said Hand told her then-boyfriend in the days after the alleged attack that McGregor had threatened to kill her.
Farrell said Hand left out that detail during his interviews with police and asked him if that claim was true.
“Is this something that happened or not?” Farrell asked him in court, according to the BBC. Hand told the court she didn’t remember if she said that to her boyfriend at the time.
McGregor has previously faced sexual assault allegations in the United States. In October 2023, the Miami State Attorney’s Office said would not bring criminal charges against McGregor after a woman accused him of trying to force her to perform oral sex on him after an NBA Finals game between the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets.
He has also previously faced criminal charges in the United States for alleged assault And criminal mischief.