He told me he’d kill me – Conor McGregor rape accuser was ‘afraid for her life’

A woman who alleges she was raped by Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor in a Dublin hotel said “he told me he’d kill me”, when her then partner asked who she had been with on the day she was allegedly assaulted.

Nikita Hand, who is also known as Nikita Ni Laimhin, is claiming civil damages against Mr McGregor and another man, alleging she was sexually assaulted in December 2018.

Ms Hand, who has no automatic right to anonymity, has accused Mr McGregor of pinning her to a bed and raping her in a hotel bedroom in Dublin.

The High Court in Dublin was played a recording of a conversation between Ms Hand and her former partner, which took place after she arrived home from the Beacon Hotel, where she claims she had been raped.

Ms Hand, a former hair colourist from Drimnagh, refused to tell her former partner who attacked her, telling him she was raped and choked three times.

In the recording, the court heard her ex partner tell Ms Hand that he “doesn’t give a f**k who warned or threatened” her, saying he will go to the guards (Irish police).

She can be heard crying throughout the 40-minute recording, during which she described how her body was in pain and that she could not breathe when she was allegedly attacked.

Ms Hand also told her former partner that she cannot tell him who was there as “he told me he’d kill me”.

Ms Hand listened to the recording from the witness stand and was visibly upset and shaking, with her head in her hands.

On her third day of giving evidence at Dublin’s High Court, Ms Hand was cross-examined by Remy Farrell SC, defence barrister for Mr McGregor.

Mr Farrell put it to Ms Hand that it was her who followed Mr McGregor into the hotel bedroom in the penthouse of the Beacon Hotel and that they started kissing before she took her clothes off.

She rejected claims that she had consensual sex with Mr McGregor twice and that she had been “enthusiastic” about it.

Ms Hand described the details that were put to her as a “made-up story”.

Earlier, Ms Hand also rejected claims that CCTV footage of her entering and leaving the Beacon Hotel in south Dublin “contradicts” her account of what happened.

The mother-of-one was distressed and shaking while she was questioned by Mr Farrell.

CCTV footage of the evening of December 9 2018 was replayed to the court and showed Ms Hand in a lift with her friend, Mr McGregor and the second defendant James Lawrence.

Ms Hand told the court she has no memory of the footage and found it “very hard to watch”.

The court was also told Ms Hand deleted text messages and asked some of her friends and family to delete text messages following the alleged assault.

Ms Hand said she did so because she was “afraid for her life”.

Ms Hand broke down in tears when she was asked to rewatch some of the CCTV footage from the evening of the alleged assault.

“It was very hard to watch and I don’t want to go through that again,” she told the court.

“I can’t remember it. It’s not me and it’s not my character. You can see how vulnerable I am. I don’t want to have to look at it again.

“It’s me but it’s not my character. It’s very disturbing for me.”

Mr Farrell put it to Ms Hand that the reason it disturbs her is because “everything in that CCTV footage contradicts the story you have told”.

But Ms Hand told the barrister she did not agree with him.

“That CCTV footage doesn’t take away from what happened to me in that room with Conor. I know what happened. I was brutally raped and battered by Conor, and that CCTV doesn’t take away from what happened to me,” she added.

Mr Farrell also claimed that Ms Hand appeared to “kiss” Mr McGregor’s arm when they got into the lift to leave the hotel room.

Ms Hand said she does not remember what happened in the lift.

Mr Farrell also claimed that the CCTV footage shows Ms Hand hug Mr McGregor when they got into the lift, but Ms Hand said she could not see herself hugging him.

Evidence also shows that a phone call was made from Ms Hand’s phone to Mr McGregor shortly before 6.30pm, after he had left the hotel.

Mr Farrell asked the plaintiff why she wanted to “have a chat” with Mr McGregor, a man she said “brutally raped” her.

Ms Hand told the court she did not remember ringing him and did not know why.

She said there was a lot of waiting around before she returned to the hotel room.

The case continues.