'You could hear a pin drop in court' as Conor McGregor gave his evidence during civil case

“Over the weekend, don’t Google what an assault is or what damages are. You’re going to stay well away from that.”

Conor McGregor was sitting in court as Judge Owens sent the jury away for the weekend, having heard all the witnesses in this civil case. The multimillionaire sportsman was as he had been when sitting in the court for much of the week. Passive.

Sitting a few seats away was his co-defendant James Lawrence.

In a row ahead and on the left was the plaintiff, Nikita Hand, also known as Nikita Ní Laimhín.

Having last week given evidence herself on what she described as the “brutal” rape and battering she claims Mr McGregor subjected her to in a Dublin hotel in December 2018, this week saw the different version of events put forward by the MMA star and his friend Mr Lawrence told to the jury.

You could hear a pin drop as Mr McGregor gave his evidence. The man who was once the highest-paid athlete in the world, but hasn’t fought in the octagon since 2021, delivered his evidence to a packed courtroom with standing room only in the back.

He gave insights into his world, of the security men who drove him around Dublin, of the all-nighters in city centre nightclubs, of the hotels he’d have booked for him, of how they’d have after-parties there and he would have sex “if [he] was lucky enough”.

He denied the hotels were reserved specifically for sex, but instead as a “place of rest” or a venue for an after-party.

“Back then, six years ago that’s what I would have done,” he said.

He admitted to taking cocaine in the car that day with Ms Hand too.

Mr McGregor also described being “petrified” when faced with the allegations she made against him and having to give a garda statement a month later.

At times in court this week, Ms Hand broke down in tears as she listened to the men give evidence. Comforted by her partner, she bowed her head during much of the testimony. At stages, she left the courtroom for brief periods before returning.

She had told the court she believed she was going to die and thought of her daughter as the MMA star choked her, then later raped her.

Conor McGregor told the court that throughout December 9, 2018, when he picked her up and brought her to the Beacon Hotel she was “the same — happy, joyous, excitable, and having a good night”.

James Lawrence, Mr McGregor’s teenage pal who bonded with him over a shared love for the Call of Duty video game, echoed this. “Everyone was having a laugh,” he said. “Everything was all good.”

Both men said they had consensual sex with Ms Hand that day.

Danielle Kealey, the work colleague of Ms Hand who also went to the hotel that day, told the court this week that she “hadn’t seen anything” and “no one was in bad form”.

But that’s not all. 

A paramedic who attended Ms Hand mother’s home on December 10, 2018, told the court she had “not seen somebody so bruised in a long time, not that intensity of bruises” when she examined Ms Hand.

Daniel Kane, a gynaecologist at the Rotunda Hospital, told the court he had to remove a tampon wedged at the “very, very top” of her vagina with forceps. Dr Kane said there had been abrasions and bruises to Ms Hand’s neck, both hands, both arms, with some consistent with fingertip bruising.

Mr McGregor was clear when asked about Ms Hand’s bruising this week.

“I’ll tell you where she didn’t get them,” he said. “From me.”

He suggested she may have gotten the bruising from “swan diving” into the bath in the hotel room. He also flatly denied she had had a tampon in when they had sex, as it was “broad daylight”, and he couldn’t feel or see one.

Mr McGregor told lawyers for Ms Hand she had had “sex with multiple people” during a “three-day bender”.

When pushed on who these multiple people were, he said Mr Lawrence and himself “at least”.

Mr Lawrence, he said, wasn’t “the fall guy” for him either. Everything Ms Hand said was “lies”, he said. She was “full of lies”, he told the court.

On Tuesday, the jury in this case will be given an issue paper. Mr Justice Owens likened it to civil servants putting before the minister the questions he or she must answer before making a decision.

“You must evaluate the facts and come to the conclusions,” he said.

After closing arguments from the plaintiff and the defendants, and the judge’s charge to the jury, they will be sent out to reach their verdict.

After two weeks of testimony that frequently made for very tough listening in Court 24, the end of this case is in sight.