Conor McGregor has lodged an appeal against the High Court civil judgment that he raped Nikita Hand in a Dublin hotel in late 2018.
Court records indicate the mixed martial arts fighter’s appeal was filed on Friday.
A jury of four men and eight women last November found against the 36-year-old in the civil rape case taken by Ms Hand. The jury found that Mr McGregor’s friend James Lawrence (35) did not rape Ms Hand. They awarded her almost €250,000 in damages.
Ms Hand, originally from Drimnagh, Dublin, had sued claiming both men raped her in the Beacon Hotel in Sandyford on December 9th, 2018. Both men denied the rape allegation and insisted they had consensual sex with Ms Hand.
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During the trial, Ms Hand gave evidence that she had been “battered” and “brutally raped” by Mr McGregor. She said she at one point feared she was going to die.
Legal representatives for Ms Hand alleged that Mr Lawrence falsely claimed he had sex with the complainant in an effort to damage her character.
The jurors deliberated for more than six hours and the damages award took in to account the loss of earnings for Ms Hand, a former hair colourist, since she stopped working and her loss of earnings into the future.
Mr McGregor was ordered to pay the bulk of Ms Hand’s costs for the civil action.
In the High Court last month, Mr McGregor was ordered not to disseminate CCTV footage featuring Ms Hand that he retained possession of following the civil rape case. He was also ordered to destroy or give back any copies in his possession.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens ordered McGregor to make a sworn statement detailing how he had deleted the footage.
On Thursday, John Gordon, SC, representing Ms Hand, told the High Court he had received a copy of a second sworn document only on the previous day, but it was signed on February 7th.
He told the court he believes the affidavit to be “entirely inadequate” and claimed Mr McGregor had not complied with one aspect of the judge’s order.
The matter will be back before the court again on March 6th.
