Woman who prevailed in civil rape lawsuit against Conor McGregor plans to file new legal action against him

McGregor was ordered to pay €248K damages and a cost to Nikita Hand sues over alleged court process abuse of raping her in a Dublin hotel in 2018.

The former neighbours of Ms Hand, Samantha O'Reilly and Steven Cummins, were due to give evidence at McGregor's appeal before he withdrew the application.

Mr Justice Gerard Hogan Conor McGregor loses civil rape appeal bid to overturn a civil court ruling that he sexually assaulted Ms Hand on Thursday.

The judge was told the new evidence may give rise to an inference that bruises on the body of Nikita Hand may have been caused by her former boyfriend.

Couple Samantha O’Reilly and Steven Cummins had offered to give evidence.

The court was told that McGregor had believed the new evidence may have shown the bruising on Nikita Hand’s body may have been caused by her ex-boyfriend.

Ms Hand, in an affidavit, described the allegations as “false and misleading”.

“The senior judges noted it was hard to understand why an important and contested aspect of the appeal seemed to have been left in limbo”, the court said.

Ms Hand, in an affidavit, dismissed the claims against her as baseless and false.

Ms Hand’s lawyers have taken legal action seeking damages against McGregor, Ms O’Reilly and Mr Cummins.

McGregor's appeal dismissed was founded on a number of issues that arose at the civil trial in Dublin's High Court last year.

They also noted that the issue paper given to the jury included the question ‘Did Conor McGregor assault Nikita Hand?

McGregor’s lawyers had argued that the claim should have been clearly defined as a sexual assault.

'Retraumatization risk me over and over'

Outside court on Thursday, Ms Hand said she wanted to thank everyone for their support throughout the civil case.

She said the fact the appeal was going ahead was “forcing me to live over and over again what has already immeasurably changed my life”.