A woman who won a civil case against Conor McGregor is now suing him and two other people for damages, claiming they were involved in malicious abuse of court processes.
McGregor was ordered to pay £206,000 in damages in November, plus legal costs, to Nikita Hand, who claimed that he raped her in a Dublin hotel in December 2018.
Hand has now launched proceedings against McGregor, Samantha O’Reilly and Steven Cummins, former neighbours of hers, alleging the three were involved in a misuse of the legal system.
The MMA fighter, 37, had intended to call O’Reilly and Cummins to give evidence in support of his appeal.
The couple had previously claimed to have witnessed a row between Hand and her former partner, Stephen Redmond, in December 2018.
McGregor’s legal team argued that this new evidence could support a theory that bruising found on Hand’s body may have been caused by her ex-boyfriend.
However, McGregor withdrew the application to introduce the evidence before the hearing began.
The Court of Appeal noted the last-minute decision to drop what judges called an ‘important and contentious’ part of the appeal.
They described it as ‘somewhat mysterious’ and awarded Hand her legal costs concerning that aspect of the case.
Hand denied the claims made by Cummins and O’Reilly, describing them in an affidavit as untrue and lies.
McGregor’s appeal was dismissed in full on Thursday. It had challenged a number of issues relating to last year’s High Court trial, including the wording of the question put to the jury.
His legal team argued it should have specified ‘sexual assault’ rather than simply asking ‘did Conor McGregor assault Nikita Hand?’
They also took issue with how McGregor’s interviews with police in Ireland were handled, saying the jury had been told he gave around 100 ‘no comment’ answers during questioning.
Outside the court, Hand said: ‘This appeal has retraumatised me over and over again, being forced to relive it, what happened has had a huge impact on me.’
She added: ‘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.’