A WOMAN broke down today as she told a High Court civil jury that she thought she was going to die and would never see her daughter again during an alleged rape by Conor McGregor.
Nikita Hand, also known as Ní Laimhín, also told the damages trial how she was “completely devastated” when she was told the Director of Public Prosecutions had decided not prosecute Mr McGregor for the alleged attack.
Ms Hand today told her counsel, Ray Boland SC, that she went to a gathering in the early hours of December 9, 2018, at the Beacon Hotel in Dublin, where she alleges that Mr McGregor pinned her down on a bed with his “whole bodyweight”.
She added: “I could not breathe.
A tearful Ms Hand told Mr Boland: “The more I couldn’t move or breathe the more he liked it and I put my fists up against my chest.”
She twice broke down while giving emotional evidence, said the only thing she could move was her head and that her “only defence was to bite” Mr McGregor.
Ms Hand said that she went to the hotel with a friend, along with Mr McGregor and his co-defendant, James Lawrence, but was not in the hotel for any sexual relationship.
Ms Hand had been out on a Christmas work party and has accepted that she was mixing drinks and twice took cocaine during the night.
Both Mr McGregor and Mr Lawrence, of Rafter’s Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, deny the allegations against them.
Ms Hand said she was fighting Mr McGregor “really hard” when she alleges she was pinned to the bed by the MMA fighter, who was “choking her” from behind.
The plaintiff said Mr McGregor had his forearms around her neck and that she “completely froze” and “couldn’t get out of it”.
A shaking Ms Hand said: “I was looking at the bedpost and thinking about my daughter.
“I was thinking of my daughter and thinking I was going to die and never see my daughter again.”
Ms Hand alleges that Mr McGregor choked her three times, with the third time being the “strongest and longest” hold.
She repeated to Mr Justice Alexander Owens: “I completely thought I was going to die.”
Ms Hand said Mr McGregor then let her go and that she was saying “sorry, sorry” to him to reassure him, so as to not hurt her again.
She alleges that Mr McGregor then said “that is how I felt in the Octagon three times”, which she thought was a “weird thing to say”.
Ms Hand said she promised Mr McGregor that she would not tell anybody about what happened and then “let him do whatever he had to do” in order “to survive because I wasn’t myself anymore”.
Ms Hand says that Mr McGregor then raped her.
The plaintiff said Mr McGregor became “really aggressive”, pushed her down onto the bed, dragged her clothes off and pushed her head towards his penis with Ms Hand trying to push herself away from the defendant.
“He then raped me and put his penis inside me, inside my vagina,” said Ms Hand, who added she was lying down at that point and that Mr McGregor was on her back.
Ms Hand said the alleged rape “felt like it went on for ages” and “then it was over and done”.
Ms Hand repeated that she felt “completely numb” and that she “completely froze” while Mr McGregor was “choking” her and on top of her.
The plaintiff told the court that she sustained bruising on her legs, back, neck, hands and that her right breast sustained an abrasion from her own watch.
She said Mr McGregor told her to then lie down on the bed and fall asleep after the alleged rape, which Ms Hand did.
Ms Hand said that she was due her period that day and that a tampon was still inside her during the alleged rape.
The plaintiff said she then woke up in a panic and texted her boyfriend but told him that she was “having a great time” because she did not want to worry him.
Ms Hand said she was in a state of confusion as Mr McGregor and her friend left the penthouse suite in the early hours of December 9, 2018.
Ms Hand said that she and Mr Lawrence were then left in the penthouse and that he got her food and a drink but that he could not believe the alleged rape happened while he was in the penthouse.
Ms Hand told Mr Boland that she asked Mr Lawrence “do you all put blind eyes to what Conor is after doing” and showed him her arms.
I was thinking of my daughter and thinking I was going to die and never see my daughter again
Nikita Hand
Ms Hand said she made a statement to gardai in January 2019 after wanting to have a “normal” Christmas but was “completely devastated” when she was told the Director of Public Prosecutions had decided not prosecute Mr McGregor or Mr Lawrence because there was “no reasonable prospect” of convictions.
Ms Hand is giving evidence on the second day of her civil action for damages over the alleged sexual assault of her by Mr McGregor and Mr Lawrence on December 9, 2018, at the Beacon Hotel in Dublin. And the claims, which are being fully defended, are denied by them.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Owens and a jury of eight women and four men.
