He told me he was going to kill me – Conor McGregor rape accuser was ‘afraid for her life’

A woman who claims she was raped by Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor in a Dublin hotel said: “He told me he was going to kill me” when her then-partner asked who she had been with on the day she was allegedly attacked.

Nikita Hand, also known as Nikita Ni Laimhin, is seeking civil damages against Mr McGregor and another man, alleging she was sexually assaulted in December 2018.

Ms Hand, who does not have an automatic right to anonymity, has accused Mr McGregor of pinning her to a bed and raping her in a hotel room in Dublin.

A recording of a conversation between Ms Hand and her former partner, which took place after she returned home from the Beacon Hotel, where she claims she was raped, was played at the High Court in Dublin.

Ms Hand, a former hair colourist from Drimnagh, refused to tell her ex-partner who had attacked her, telling him she had been raped and strangled three times.

In the recording, the court heard her ex-partner tell Ms Hand that he “doesn’t care who warned or threatened her” and said he would go to the guards (Irish police).

She can be heard crying during the 40-minute recording, as she described her body in pain and her being unable to breathe as she was allegedly attacked.

Ms Hand also told her former partner she could not tell him who was there because “he told me he was going to kill me”.

Ms Hand listened to the recording from the witness box and was visibly upset, shaking and holding her head in her hands.

On her third day as a witness at Dublin High Court, Ms Hand was cross-examined by Remy Farrell SC, barrister for Mr McGregor.

Mr Farrell told Ms Hand that it was she who followed Mr McGregor to the hotel room in the penthouse of the Beacon Hotel and that they started kissing before she took off her clothes.

She rejected claims that she had had consensual sex with Mr McGregor twice and that she had been ‘enthusiastic’ about it.

Ms Hand described the details presented to her as a “made-up story”.

Previously, Ms Hand also dismissed claims that CCTV footage of her entering and leaving the Beacon Hotel in south Dublin “contradicted” her account of what happened.

The mother-of-one was distressed and shaking as she was questioned by Mr Farrell.

CCTV footage from the evening of December 9, 2018 was played in court and showed Ms Hand in a lift with her boyfriend, Mr McGregor, and the second defendant, James Lawrence.

Ms Hand told the court she cannot remember the footage and found it “very difficult to watch”.

The court was also told that Ms Hand had deleted text messages and asked some of her friends and family to delete text messages after the alleged assault.

Ms Hand said she did this because she was “afraid for her life”.

Ms Hand burst into tears when asked to re-watch some CCTV footage from the night of the alleged assault.

“It was very difficult to watch and I don’t want to experience that again,” she told the court.

‘I can’t remember. It’s not me, and it’s not my character. You see how vulnerable I am. I don’t want to have to look at it anymore.

‘It’s me, but it’s not my character. It is very disturbing to me.”

Mr Farrell told Ms Hand that the reason it bothers her is that “everything in the CCTV footage contradicts the story you have told”.

But Ms. Hand told the lawyer she disagreed with him.

‘That CCTV footage does not alter what happened to me in that room with Conor. I know what happened. “I was brutally raped and abused by Conor, and that CCTV footage does not take away from what happened to me,” she added.

Mr Farrell also claimed Ms Hand appeared to ‘kiss’ Mr McGregor’s arm as they got into the lift to leave the hotel room.

Ms. Hand said she does not remember what happened in the elevator.

Mr Farrell also claimed the CCTV footage shows Ms Hand hugging Mr McGregor as they got into the lift, but Ms Hand said she could not see herself hugging him.

Evidence also shows that a call was made from Ms Hand’s phone to Mr McGregor shortly before 6.30pm after he had left the hotel.

Mr Farrell asked the complainant why she wanted to “have a chat” with Mr McGregor, a man she said had been “brutally raped”.

Ms Hand told the court she did not remember calling him and did not know why.

She said there was a lot of waiting before returning to the hotel room.