Woman deleted messages because she ‘feared for life’, court hears

A woman who has accused Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor of raping her has told a court she told friends and family to delete text messages because she was “afraid for her life”.

Nikita Hand has taken civil action against Mr McGregor and another man, seeking damages for an alleged sexual assault in a Dublin hotel in December 2018.

Mr McGregor denies the allegations and his lawyers told an earlier hearing in the case that Ms Hand is attempting extortion.

In 2020, Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute either man due to a lack of evidence and no reasonable prospect of conviction.

In a civil proceeding in the Republic of Ireland, unlike a criminal proceeding, neither the complainant nor the two defendants are entitled to anonymity during the legal proceedings.

Under cross-examination by Mr McGregor’s lawyer, Ms Hand said she had warned close friends and family to delete messages from her detailing the alleged rape because she was paranoid.

The lawyer asked whether Ms Hand had told a woman, who left the Beacon Hotel in the same car as the MMA star, to delete messages.

“Probably, because I was scared for my life,” she said.

“I don’t know when I told her. I would have told her because I told other people that too… I deleted my messages because I didn’t want to press charges because I was scared.”

The lawyer told Ms Hand she “didn’t seem to want the guards (Irish police) to speak to the other woman” when she was first questioned.

Ms Hand said in her interview with the Garda that she was concerned because Mr McGregor had dropped the woman off at home and knew where she lived.

Ms Hand said in her garda interview that she was concerned because McGregor had dropped the woman off at home and knew where she lived.

In court, Ms Hand said she was worried about her friend because she was scared too. “I didn’t want to put her in a position where she had to say everything she didn’t want to,” she said.

It was later noted that upon leaving the hotel, Mrs. Hand went to her manager’s house to hand over the salon keys.

She said she remembered telling her manager that she had been raped by Conor McGregor.

“I can’t remember it word for word, I was in a terrible state. I know I told her I had been raped, choked and had bruises,” she said.

The lawyer said: ‘Do you not remember telling her that you woke up and two bodyguards came into the room and you thought you were going to be gang raped? And that you ran away because you thought you were going to be gang raped. the guard?”

Ms Hand said she didn’t remember because she was “all over the place”.

“Everything went through my head. I told her that I had been brutally raped. How could someone in that state of mind be right about everything?

“I told her I had been raped, abused and strangled, the most important detail. I remember telling her it was Conor McGregor.”

The lawyer reminded Ms Hand of CCTV footage from the Beacon Hotel, where Mr McGregor left at around 6pm local time.

A call was made from Ms Hand’s phone to Mr McGregor, the lawyer said, asking why she was doing this.

“I don’t know why I called him,” Mrs. Hand said.

She told the court that the second defendant, James Lawrence, of Rafters Road in Drimnagh, Dublin, had taken the phone from her and this could be seen on the CCTV footage.

During almost 20 minutes of footage, the lawyer said Mr Lawrence and Ms Hand were in the basement of the hotel and she kissed Mr Lawrence on the cheek.

The lawyer said they also occasionally put their arms around each other.

Ms Hand said she could not remember this period.

“It’s not me, it’s not my character. You can see how vulnerable I was. I stumble, I don’t want to have to look at it again. It’s very disturbing for me,” she said.

Mr McGregor’s lawyer said the CCTV footage “contradicts the story you have told.”

Ms Hand said she disagreed.

That CCTV footage doesn’t take away from what happened to me in that room with Conor. I was brutally raped and abused, those camera images do not take away what happened to me.”

The case continues.