Irish court rejects McGregor appeal in civil rape case

By Conor Humphries

DUBLIN (Reuters) -Martial arts fighter Conor McGregor on Thursday lost his appeal against a civil jury's finding that he raped a woman in a hotel room in 2018, with Ireland's Court of Appeal rejecting his appeal in its entirety.

The plaintiff, Nikita Hand, alleged that McGregor sexually assaulted her on December 9, 2018. A jury in Ireland’s High Court last November found in favour of Hand and ordered McGregor to pay her nearly 250,000 euros ($285,250) in damages.

McGregor, 36, denied the allegation and said he had "fully consensual sex" with Hand. He also denied causing bruising to the plaintiff.

In the appeal heard earlier this month, lawyers for McGregor said the judge erred in directing the jury to decide whether he "assaulted" rather than "sexually assaulted" the victim.

Judge Brian O'Moore said on Thursday that the appeal court had no doubt the overall effect of the trial judge's charge was to tell them the central allegation by Hand against McGregor was that he had raped her.

"The jury found as a fact that Mr. McGregor had assaulted Ms Hand by raping her," O'Moore said, reading out the ruling.

McGregor's legal team had also argued that the judge should not have allowed a line of questioning during cross-examination regarding McGregor's "no comment" responses in a police interview. That ground was also rejected.

Hand embraced a number of people beside her after the appeal court ruling.

"To every survivor out there I know how hard it is but please don't be silenced ... You deserve to be heard, you also deserve justice. Today, I can finally move on and try to heal," Hand said in a statement outside the court.

Hand told the high court in November that she and a friend made contact with McGregor, whom she knew, after a work Christmas party. She said they were driven by McGregor to a party in a penthouse room of a Dublin hotel where drugs and alcohol were consumed.

She said McGregor, who was not in court on Thursday, took her to a bedroom in the penthouse and sexually assaulted her.

Hand's lawyer told the jury that when she was referred to a sexual assault treatment unit the day after the alleged assault, a doctor was so concerned that he directed that photographs be taken of her injuries.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries, editing by Padraic Halpin, Sarah Young and Giles Elgood)