MMA fighter Conor McGregor raped woman in Dublin hotel, court told

The Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor raped a woman in a Dublin hotel, the city’s high court has been told.

Nikita Ní Laimhín is claiming civil damages against McGregor and another man, alleging she was sexually assaulted in 2018.

But, the court heard on Tuesday, McGregor’s lawyers say Ní Laimhín, who has no automatic right to anonymity, is attempting extortion.

The fighter, nicknamed “Notorious”, was in court to hear Justice Alexander Owens tell the jury it is alleged Ní Laimhín was sexually assaulted by McGregor and James Lawrence on 9 December.

The judge said it was alleged that the pair had “in effect raped her”.

The court was told McGregor collected Ní Laimhín, a hairdresser in Dublin, and her friend after a Christmas party on 8 December.

John Gordon SC, for Ní Laimhín, said that she and McGregor were known to each other as they were in the same age group, from the same area and had mutual friends and had been in contact at various times through social media.

At the time she lived in the Dublin suburb of Drimnagh with her partner and seven-year-old daughter. She had been out with friends on the night of the alleged incident.

Gordon said McGregor was “enormously famous” and was considered a “hero” around Drimnagh.

He claimed that his client was “no angel” and “doesn’t pretend to be an angel”. On the night, she had been drinking and had taken some cocaine. The court also heard that she suffered from depression and had been on antidepressants.

The court was told that later on in the night, Ní Laimhín and two of her friends returned to her salon, where they continued to party and at some point she contacted McGregor. He collected her and her friend in his car, and Ní Laimhín understood they were to be taken to another party.

McGregor sat in the back seat with the two women, while his driver took them around housing estates and beeped the horn. They later went to the home of Lawrence, who joined them in the car.

The court was told that McGregor had a bag of cocaine, which was shared between him, Ní Laimhín and her friend.

Ní Laimhín, McGregor, his security team and others then went to a penthouse suite in the Beacon hotel in Dublin. The court was told that they were all drinking and laughing.

At one point, McGregor allegedly went into a bedroom and beckoned Ní Laimhín to join him. The court was told that McGregor “came on to her”, but she did not want to have sexual intercourse with him as she was on her period.

Gordon told the court that she alleged that McGregor pinned her down on the bed and that she was no physical match for him. “She will tell you that she was nervous, that she tried to push him off her but she was completely unable to do so,” he added.

“You will see pictures of her hands and wrists, which are black and blue. You will see that her left breast has a bloodied scratch. The scratch is there because she was wearing a watch and had her hands up to protect herself. She was pressed down on and the watch scarred her breast.

“Mr McGregor then flips her over and puts her arm in a lock and draws her up by the neck. She can’t breathe. And he does it again.

“By the third time he does it, she gives up. She can’t resist this any more. In the course of this he says: ‘Now you know what it was like to be in the Octagon when I went down three times.’

“She was at this point completely terrified. She subjected herself to what was about to happen, which was a violent and vicious assault.”

It is alleged later that she had sex with Lawrence, but Gordon said she had no recollection of such an event ever happening.

Ní Laimhín later went home and visited her mother, who called 999. She was taken to hospital in an ambulance. The court was told that she was shaking and in pain while being transferred to hospital.

Gordon said: “In the face of this, Mr McGregor will tell you that this was a consensual encounter, that they were just having fun and a bit of rough sex. That’s his answer.

“What did I say about common sense? Don’t be fooled into leaving it behind in this [court] room. What he is saying is that she gave him a licence to carry out what has to have been a brutal assault on her body.”

The court also heard from Dr Daniel Keane, who works as a gynaecologist as well as a forensic examiner in sexual assault cases.

He told the court he was working at the emergency department at the Rotunda hospital in Dublin when Ní Laimhín was brought in by ambulance.

Keane said she was “very upset”, and was “shaking and crying”. He told the court how they had to get a blanket for her to sit on because of the pain she was in.

In his report, he said Ní Laimhín had told him that morning that the alleged attacker had her by the neck and that he had stopped her from breathing. He told the court that she had claimed she did not fight him any more and thought he was going to kill her.

Keane detailed extensive bruising across Ní Laimhín’s body, including her face, arms, fingers, forearms, knuckles, legs, lower back and buttocks. She also had a 9cm scratch on her left breast.

Her also stated that Ní Laimhín was worried about a tampon she had been wearing on the night. He explained how he had to use forceps to remove the tampon, which had been “wedged inside”.

He told the court that he had carried out hundreds of examinations on women, and said the extent of bruising on Ní Laimhín was “quite unusual”.

The defence claimed in the evidence booklet that Ní Laimhín had several opportunities to complain to people about how she was treated but did not. It would also claim that Ní Laimhín was engaged in an attempt at extortion, the court heard.

Gordon said his client was being called a “gold digger and a fraud”, adding: “Brave. But where is the bravery in this? Bravery ultimately sits with my client.

“Because she pursued her mission for vindication and compensation to which she is entitled. And for these defendants to breezily and cheekily dispose of her claim is something you will consider in due course.”

Earlier the jury was sworn in at the high court and told that they were judges of fact as to what happened and would have to draw a conclusion, and it would be based on their decision.

The action is expected to last around two weeks.