Content warning: This story involves the mention and description of sexual assault.
Former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor is facing disturbing allegations of rape as part of a civil lawsuit currently underway in Dublin, Ireland.
In a jury trial which officially started Tuesday, a woman – whom Knockdown News has opted not to refer to by name – alleges that the MMA vet forcibly had sex with her in 2018 and caused numerous bruises due to an overpowering exertion of force. Developments in the case have been followed live by the Irish Mirror this week, with live blogs covering the developments of the first and second day thus far.
According to John Gordon SC, a lawyer representing the woman suing McGregor and co-defendant James Lawrence, she was taken to a penthouse suite in Dublin whilst under the influence of cocaine and alcohol.
The alleged victim, who has spent some of the first day of the trial and the entire second day on the stand for examination, claims she feared death as the UFC fighter allegedly held her down and choked her before having sex.
“I didn’t want to have sex and I wasn’t there for anything like that,” she said. “He just wasn’t taking no for an answer.”
Later that night, it is alleged that the plaintiff had sex with McGregor’s co-defendant Lawrence twice, but claims she has “no recollection of such an event ever happening.”
The next day, the plaintiff was sent to the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, where Dr. Daniel Kane found a “multiplicity” of bruises on her body.
Dr. Kane, who served as a key witness on the first day of the trial, saw “multiple body injuries” while administering a sexual assault examination kit and said he considered his findings “consistent with the outline of events as described” by the plaintiff.
He recalled the plaintiff as “an absolute wreck,” weeping and in pain throughout the process.
The alleged victim, who pursued a civil suit in 2021 after Irish prosecutors decided to not go after a criminal case, says her mental health has “deteriorated completely” since the incident.
She left her job as a hair colorist just months after the alleged incident and has struggled to work ever since. In 2021, she started to receive disability allowance. Earlier this year, she was deemed “unfit to work” by a doctor.
The plaintiff struggled greatly while being examined in court on Wednesday, with the court proceedings being paused twice so she could help regain composure. As part of her examination on Wednesday by her lawyer, more than 30 minutes of CCTV footage was shown to the jury.
The third day of trial is set to begin Thursday, continuing with a cross-examination of the plaintiff. McGregor’s lawyer Remy Farrell SC has spent most of his examination of the plaintiff questioning text exchanges she had with her partner the night of the alleged incident, attempting to underscore a pattern of lies told to her then-boyfriend.
The plaintiff has repeatedly stressed that she was not truthful to her partner to not worry him about her plans that evening. “I didn’t want to tell him I was going to a party with Conor,” she said.
When details of McGregor facing a civil suit initially emerged in 2021 through a New York Times report, a spokesperson for the UFC star “categorically rejected” the allegations and stated they were “confident that justice will prevail.”
It was previously reported that the case is expected to last two weeks in total.
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