Nikita Hand has initiated new legal proceedings against Conor McGregor and two people previously due to give evidence in his failed appeal against the outcome of a civil rape case Ms Hand won against him last November.
The High Court action was filed on Thursday, shortly after the Court of Appeal dismissed the MMA fighter’s appeal.
The three-judge Court of Appeal, in a unanimous judgment, dismissed all grounds of the appeal. Ms Hand, accompanied by friends and supporters, was in court for the ruling. Mr McGregor was not present.
Ms Hand is now suing Mr McGregor, Samantha O’Reilly and Steven Cummins for damages.
Mr McGregor had claimed that fresh evidence provided by Ms O’Reilly and Mr Cummins bolstered his insistence he was not responsible for bruising on Ms Hand’s body following the alleged assault in December 2018.
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The fresh evidence included sworn statements from Ms O’Reilly and Mr Cummins, who lived across the road from Ms Hand in Drimnagh, Dublin in late 2018. In an affidavit sworn last January, Ms O’Reilly claimed she had witnessed, from her home, a physical altercation between Ms Hand and her then partner Stephen Redmond in their home on the night of December 9th/10th, 2018.
In an affidavit, Ms Hand described her neighbours’ claims as lies and said Mr Redmond never assaulted her that night or at any time during their relationship.
The application to admit the neighbours’ evidence was dramatically withdrawn by Mr McGregor’s side at the outset of the appeal on July 1st. The court granted Ms Hand’s lawyers application to have the matter referred for consideration of possible perjury, including possible induced perjury by Mr McGregor.
Last November, a High Court jury found Mr McGregor had assaulted Ms Hand and awarded her almost €250,000 in damages.
In the appeal court judgment on Thursday, Mr Justice Brian O’Moore, sitting with Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy and Mr Justice Michael McGrath, said the jury had to decide in essence between Mr McGregor’s description of “a rather tawdry episode” and Ms Hand’s claim a criminal offence had been committed against her.
The court dismissed all grounds of the appeal including a claim Mr McGregor’s side was deprived of the right of an effective cross-examination in relation to the availability of expert reports.
The court also ruled Ms Hand was entitled to costs, at the highest solicitor-client level, of the last-minute withdrawal, in what Mr Justice Brian O’Moore described as “mysterious” circumstances, of two motions brought by Mr McGregor seeking to have fresh evidence admitted.
It separately dismissed an appeal by James Lawrence (36), of Rafters Road, Drimnagh, against a refusal to award him his legal costs against Ms Hand after the jury found he had not assaulted Ms Hand after Mr McGregor left the hotel. Ms Hand and Mr Lawrence – whose costs were paid by Mr McGregor – should pay their own costs regarding that particular claim, it ruled.
In a post on X on Friday, Mr McGregor said that he would not be paying the legal costs for Mr Lawrence.
“You are out of your f*****g mind if you think I am paying James Lawrence legal costs, folks,” he posted.
