Nikita Hand sends a powerful message to victims after appeal case

Nikita Hand has said she can ‘finally move on and try to heal’ after judges threw out Conor McGregor’s civil rape case appeal.

Speaking outside the Four Courts on Thursday, Ms Hand said the MMA fighter’s appeal had ‘retraumatised her over and over again’, but she told survivors: ‘Don’t be silenced. You deserve to be heard, you also deserve justice.’

McGregor was not in court for the ruling and instead has been posting social media photos from his luxury yacht this week, showing him giving blood and urine tests ahead of his return to mixed martial arts fighting after a break of nearly five years.

He also posted a video of family members swimming in the sea and a photo of himself climbing into the water from the back of the yacht.

The MMA fighter lost his appeal on Thursday on all five grounds on which the case was taken. Ms Hand sued McGregor after she said he ‘brutally raped and battered’ her in a penthouse at a south Dublin hotel in December 2018. The jury found McGregor, who denied the claims and told the court that he’d had consensual sex with Ms Hand, civilly liable for assault.

She was awarded €248,604 in damages and McGregor, 37, was also ordered to pay about €1.3million in legal costs following November’s trial. He then launched an appeal on the basis of five grounds. Among the grounds was fresh evidence following an affidavit from a former neighbour of Ms Hand, Samantha O’Reilly, who said she had witnessed a physical row between Ms Hand and her then-partner at about the same time of the incident at the Beacon Hotel.

Earlier this month, McGregor’s legal team dramatically withdrew that ground of appeal, saying it would no longer be relying on the material. The appeal proceeded on other grounds, largely relating to the circumstances under which his ‘no comment’ answers to gardaí were allowed to enter the trial.

McGregor’s co-defendant has also lost his appeal against the trial judge’s decision not to award him his legal costs. In the same trial in November, the jury did not find James Lawrence, in his mid-30s and from Rafter’s Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, had assaulted Ms Hand at the hotel.

However, the trial judge decided that Ms Hand would not have to pay Mr Lawrence’s costs. His legal team challenged whether that decision was correct and reasonable, arguing Ms Hand should have to pay as the jury did not find he had assaulted her.

Nikita Hand speaking to the media after attending the Court of Appeal. Pic: Collins Courts/ CC

Delivering their judgment on Thursday, the three judges of the court – Judge Isobel Kennedy, Judge Brian O’Moore and Judge Patrick MacGrath – agreed to dismiss both appeals in their entirety. Reading out the judgment on behalf of the three-judge panel, Judge O’Moore summarised the grounds for appeal before explaining the Court of Appeal’s reasons for dismissing all five grounds.

‘I therefore dismiss the appeal in its entirety,’ he said. Ms Hand was embraced by her supporters in court after the judgment was delivered. Neither McGregor nor Mr Lawrence were present in court.

Afterward, Ms Hand said the appeal had ‘retraumatised her’ as she urged survivors of sexual assault not to be ‘silenced.’ Speaking outside the Four Courts in Dublin, Ms Hand, a hair colourist in her mid-30s from Drimnagh, said she did not have a message for McGregor.

‘I want to begin by thanking my legal team, the Rape Crisis Centre, and the three judges who delivered the decision today,’ she said in a statement. ‘I’m also deeply grateful for everyone who supported me and those who believed in me and stood by my side throughout this case.

Nikita Hand speaking to the media after attending the Court of Appeal. Pic: Collins Courts/ CC

‘This appeal has retraumatised me over and over again, being forced to relive it, what happened, has had a huge impact on me. To every survivor out there, I know how hard it is, but please don’t be silenced. You deserve to be heard, you also deserve justice. Today I can finally move on and try to heal.’

During the high-profile case, the jurors had seen CCTV evidence showing Ms Hand, McGregor and their friends Danielle Kealy and Mr Lawrence in the hotel car park and lift on the day the assault took place, December 9, 2018. During Ms Hand’s cross-examination, McGregor’s barrister had suggested that the CCTV evidence showed that she was interested in a ‘romantic entanglement’.

She replied: ‘I don’t remember what we were doing or saying. It is very hard to watch… I see a very vulnerable woman, a drunk woman who did not know what she was doing, who should have been looked after, who should have been taken home in that state.’ Instead, she said she had been brutally raped and battered.

Last January, Judge Alexander Owens was told that Ms Hand, a mother-of-one, was worried that McGregor and his business partner intended to release the footage, in a bid to ‘change the public’s view’ and boost sales of the MMA fighter’s Italian stout, a claim he denied.