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| Conor McGregor: Former MMA fighter loses appeal in civil rape case | Conor McGregor: Former MMA fighter loses appeal in civil rape case |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| McGregor, pictured at an earlier court appearance, denied all of the allegations | |
| Conor McGregor has lost his civil jury appeal against a finding that he sexually assaulted a woman. | Conor McGregor has lost his civil jury appeal against a finding that he sexually assaulted a woman. |
| In November, McGregor was ordered to pay £206,000 in damages plus costs to Nikita Hand, who accused him of raping her in a hotel in Dublin in 2018. | In November, McGregor was ordered to pay £206,000 in damages plus costs to Nikita Hand, who accused him of raping her in a hotel in Dublin in 2018. |
| McGregor appealed on the grounds that his lawyers believed his answers to police during interviews should not have been put before the jury. | McGregor appealed on the grounds that his lawyers believed his answers to police during interviews should not have been put before the jury. |
| His barrister also argued that a question on the "issue paper" given to the jury to help them decide their verdict should have been worded differently. | His barrister also argued that a question on the "issue paper" given to the jury to help them decide their verdict should have been worded differently. |
| Three senior judges at the Court of Appeal in Dublin dismissed the appeal on all grounds. | Three senior judges at the Court of Appeal in Dublin dismissed the appeal on all grounds. |
| Conor McGregor was not in court for the ruling. | |
| Nikita Hand attended the hearing with several supporters. | |
| In relation to the police interviews, the court found McGregor's lawyers had not proved there was "a real risk of unfair trial". | |
| During the original case, the jury heard that McGregor said "no comment" around 100 times when he was interviewed by police. | |
| The issue paper asked the jurors if Conor McGregor had assaulted Ms Hand. | |
| McGregor's lawyers argued it should have specified "sexual assault" rather than "assault". | |
| But the appeal judges said that it was "simply unreal" to suggest that any member of the jury could have become confused about meaning of the question. | |
| They gave a unanimous ruling that McGregor's appeal should be dismissed "in its entirety". | |
| Nikita Hand said she was "overwhelmed" by support after taking the case against McGregor | |
| What was the basis for McGregor's appeal? | |
| The appeal was based around several issues arising from the civil trial at Dublin's High Court last year. | |
| They included reference to the question "did Conor McGregor assault Nikita Hand?" being asked of the jury on the issue paper. | |
| Conor McGregor's legal team said it should have specified sexual assault. | |
| However, a barrister for Ms Hand said "assault" covers a wide variety of assaults adding "what we were dealing with was assault by rape". | |
| He added the question put to the jury "was agreed and the jury could not have been confused by it". | |
| McGregor was also appealing an issue around the handling of his answers in interviews with gardaí (Irish police officers). | |
| His legal team explained that the jury heard McGregor gave about 100 "no comment" answers to gardaí. | |
| His barrister said he had a right to silence in police interviews and it was "left hanging", allowing the jury to draw an adverse inference. | |
| Ms Hand's legal team countered this argument by saying that if this was such a serious issue for McGregor at the time "surely an application to discharge the jury would have been made". | |
| Her barrister said such an application was not made. | |
| McGregor's legal appeal was also raising an issue about the judge's charge to the jury during the civil trial. | |
| Withdrawal of evidence | |
| At the beginning of the process, Ireland's Court of Appeal was told that McGregor had withdrawn an application to have new evidence entered at the appeal. | |
| The proposed evidence was from a couple, Samantha O'Reilly and Steven Cummins, who are former neighbours of Nikita Hand. | |
| A previous preliminary hearing was told that they claimed to have witnessed a row between Ms Hand and her former partner Stephen Redmond in December 2018. | |
| The court heard McGregor believed the new evidence suggested that bruising on Nikita Hand's body could have been caused by her former partner. | |
| In an affidavit, Ms Hand had described the allegations as untrue and lies. |