Conor McGregor ordered to pay £188k to woman who accused him of rape

Mixed martial arts star ‘brutally’ assaulted Nikita Hand in 2018, Dublin’s High Court finds

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Conor McGregor, the Irish mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, must pay nearly £188,000 (€250,000) in damages to a woman who accused him of rape in Dublin in 2018, a jury decided on Friday.
The 36-year-old fighter previously told Dublin’s High Court he had consensual sex with Nikita Hand in a penthouse at the Beacon Hotel in December 2018.
It also emerged a group of masked men invaded Ms Hand’s home and stabbed her partner, prompting her to move out of the area she lived in.
The break-in was not put before the jury as the judge said it was not relevant to the case. Her lawyers did not accuse McGregor of being involved.
Ms Hand alleged McGregor pinned her down, choked her three times and “brutally raped and battered” her.
McGregor shook his head as the jury of eight women and four men found him liable of assaulting Ms Hand following six hours and 10 minutes of deliberation.
McGregor has been ordered to pay her £188,000 (€250,000) in damages. 
He remained tight-lipped as he left the court on Friday but later said he planned to appeal the decision. 
McGregor said he was “disappointed that the jury did not hear all the evidence that the director of public prosecutions reviewed”.
“I am with my family, focused on my future,” the MMA fighter added.
Speaking outside of court after the decision, Ms Hand said the last few weeks had been a “nightmare”.
“I know this has impacted not only my life, but my daughter’s, my family and friends tremendously,” she said.
“It’s something that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.”
Ms Hand was left with purple and blue bruising along her hands and wrists, a bloodied scratch to her breast and a sore neck, the jury was told.
Her lawyer told the jury that when she was referred to a sexual assault treatment unit the day after the alleged assault, a doctor was so concerned he ordered photographs to be taken of her injuries.
Ms Hand said that she and a friend met McGregor, whom she had spoken with on social media, after attending a Christmas party.
The MMA star then drove Ms Hand and her friend to a party in a penthouse room at the Beacon hotel, where there were drugs and alcohol, the trial was told.
Ms Hand said McGregor “came on to her” in the hotel room but told the trial she did not want to have sexual intercourse with him.
John Gordon, her lawyer, said she was on antidepressants at the time, and “full of drugs” at the time of the alleged assault.
McGregor’s lawyers hit back by accusing Ms Hand of “extortion” and asked the jury to look at the evidence rather than his character.
The lawyers pointed to CCTV footage of the woman arriving at and leaving the hotel with McGregor and James Lawrence, who she also accused of sexual assault.
Ms Hand lost her claim against Mr Lawrence.
Both McGregor and Mr Lawrence denied any wrongdoing.
Before the civil action against McGregor began, lawyers for Ms Hand told the High Court about an incident at her house in the Drimnagh area earlier in June.
A group of men wearing balaclavas smashed the windows of her home before being driven out by Ms Hand’s partner, who was stabbed in the process.
During the trial, the jurors were told that Ms Hand had made a claim for the cost of relocating and buying a house in a new area but were not told why this claim was made as it was deemed irrelevant to the case by Justice Alexander Owens.
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