The tears came from an unexpected quarter. MMA fighter Conor McGregor, aka The Notorious, is holding his mother’s hand, gulping for air and crying. “Easy, easy,” he repeats to himself, shoulders heaving. The sound of his laboured breathing is amplified by the strained silence in the courtroom.
He glances around at the packed benches, and behind to members of his large entourage shoehorned into a space behind him. They watch him anxiously. He seems agitated, looks frightened. Head turning this way and that.
As McGregor’s partner Dee Devlin strokes his arm to calm him, the diamonds on her ring sparkle brilliantly in the light.
A few minutes earlier Nikita Hand took her place on the bench in front of them. She was crying too, but silently. As she had done throughout much of her civil action against McGregor, who she said raped and battered her in the penthouse suite of a Dublin hotel six years ago.
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McGregor called her a liar. He said he didn’t cause the appalling bruises and marks on her body, and disdainfully suggested she had sex with other men who were probably responsible for her injuries.
The forensic evidence suggested otherwise, but it didn’t stop the fighter, who is one of the highest paid sportsmen in the world, insinuating that Nikita Hand was the author of her own misfortune and he was merely a generous man-about-town whose loving kindness was exploited by a cheating woman out for compensation.
Over the two week hearing the events of that day in December 2018 were laid bare in the most raw and humiliating detail for the mother-of-one, who thought she was going to a penthouse after-party with the superstar at the end of a long session of hard partying, only to end up being pinned down, in a chokehold and unable to move as he violently raped her.
Her distress when she gave her testimony was clear for all to see. It was a hugely difficult thing to do. She broke down on a number of occasions in the witness box. Yet her determination to seek justice shone through too.
Her distress was also evident when she had to listen to McGregor’s testimony.
When he recalled details of their “consensual” sexual exploits, listing the multiple positions they enjoyed, and how he held her with his hands below her hips, below her buttocks, “below her hamstrings”.
How it was all “fun” and “joyful” and “enthusiastic” and “energetic” and how “she took off her onesie thing and had her shoulders out” and everything was “boisterous” and “nice” and “friendly”.
The forensic scientist said the straps on Nikita’s semen-stained jumpsuit had been ripped off in a manner “not the result of normal wear and tear”.
McGregor’s self-satisfied drawl through the minutiae of his long night’s journey into afternoon assault made for increasingly unbearable listening.
“I need a shower after that,” remarked one observer in court after his first day in the witness box.
After the second day, we asked a different person how they thought McGregor fared.
And the reply? “I need a shower after that.”
How Nikita Hand won her battle against Conor McGregor
[ ‘I know what happened in that room’: the full story of the Conor McGregor caseOpens in new window ]
His barrister, the extremely capable and experienced Remy Farrell, began his closing argument by immediately tackling the elephant in the room. He told the jury that, even if some of them might loathe Conor McGregor, even if they can’t stand him, they must cast these feelings aside and judge the case objectively, on its merits.
They retired to consider their verdict late on Thursday, and were back on Friday morning.
McGregor put on quite a show when he pulled up outside the High Court in a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce on Friday. He got out and walked around to the other side of the car, opening the door for his partner Dee.
The women in his life accompanied him for his last day in court – mammy, partner, sister and so on. He also had a large entourage in attendance, including general election candidate and boxing coach Phil Sutcliffe who arrived wearing a green Peaky Blinders-style cap, a three-piece check suit under a check overcoat in a contrasting colour and apricot pink silk tie.
McGregor looked very dapper in a navy suit, green silk tie, double-cuffed white shirt and a handkerchief in his top pocket.
He also looked nervous. When the jury went out after 10am, his crew adjourned to a nearby hotel.
After lunch there was one false alarm when people thought a verdict was imminent and everyone piled back into the courtroom and waited, in silence, until the judge came out to say the jury would stay until 6pm.
The relief was almost palpable when the court adjourned.
Finally, at 4.30pm, there was definite movement.
Nikita Hand and her partner Gary, along with her mother and a representative from the Rape Crisis Centre who was with her all through the case, took their seat. Her hands were trembling. Her mother and partner comforted her as family friends stood nearby.
Five minutes later the McGregor group walked in. Nobody was talking.
The MMA fighter took his seat and took deep breaths. His partner and mother talking to him, trying to calm him as he began to cry. His father sat down beside him. The tension was unbearable. Hearts thumping in chests. And the silence. It was oppressive.
Then the sound of footsteps on wooden stairs. Judge Alexander Owens came in and saw the scene at the back of his court. He told people to move upstairs. “I want no scenes,” he said, warning anyone causing trouble “will find themselves in jail”.
More footsteps behind the door. The only other sound was that of McGregor’s heaving breath.
The jury appeared. And we knew.
McGregor wiped more tears away.
The judge asked if they had a verdict. They did.
McGregor looked up at them. They didn’t look at him.
Did they find he assaulted Nikita Hand? Yes.
The judge had earlier said that rape is an assault. She accused McGregor of rape. A jury of his peers agreed.
He slumped forward and buried his head in his hands.
Nikita Hand cried, tears of relief.
He looked up, exhaled, and gave a tiny, fleeting smile.
The jury left.
McGregor shook his head. His partner put her head on his shoulder. His mother leaned in. He reached out and put his arm around them, cradling their heads.
There were no scenes. Just silence. They sat for a while.
James Lawrence, McGregor’s friend who gave evidence that he too had sex with Nikita – the jury found he had not assaulted her – shook his hand and massaged his shoulders.
The group sat for a while in the foyer. Then McGregor and Devlin were driven away.
A woman stood outside and held up a sign. “Oh, Nikita, you will never know, how we all BELIEVE and SUPPORT you so!!”
Smiling, Nikita spoke briefly to the media, thanking her legal team and the medics in the Rotunda sexual assault unit who looked after her the day after she was raped. She thanked her family and partner Gary, her mother and daughter Freya.
“I want to show Freya, and every other girl and boy that you can stand up for yourself if something happens to you, no matter who the person is, and justice will be served,” she said.
Did she feel vindicated?
“Yes. I do. I do.”
How Nikita Hand won her battle against Conor McGregor
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