A woman who alleges she was raped by UFC star Conor McGregor has broken down in tears in court and denied that CCTV footage from the day in question ‘contradicts’ her version of events.
The accuser is pursuing civil damages against McGregor, 36, and another man, after claiming she was sexually assaulted by the Irishman in December 2018.
The incident allegedly took place at Dublin’s Beacon Hotel. A civil damages claim has been brought against McGregor, 36, and James Lawrence, who both deny the civil assault claim.
During cross-examination, the woman’s version of events were queried by McGregor’s counsel, Remy Farrell SC. In CCTV footage played to the court, dated after the time of the alleged rape, McGregor is shown entering a lift with the woman, his co-defendant, and the woman’s friend.
It appears to show the woman kissing McGregor on the arm, and getting close to him in what his lawyers argued was a hug. While watching the footage, the woman began crying.
She then told the court: “I’m very drunk, I’m stumbling. It’s not my character. I’m very vulnerable and I don’t want to have to look at it again.”
Mr Farrell told the woman that according to her account, at the time of the CCTV footage she had previously claimed to be in distress. “You’re black and blue, you’ve been raped and nearly strangled, you’d feared for your life and you thought you’d never see your daughter again.”
“Yes. That’s what happened,” the accuser replied. Mr Farrell then asked: “But you’d forgotten all that by the time you got into the lift, is that right?”
The woman answered: “The CCTV footage doesn’t take away from what happened to me in that room with Conor. I know what happened to me. I was brutally raped and battered,” she said.
The woman also claimed he had asked friends to delete text messages from the night in question because: “I was afraid for my life.” She agreed wiith Mr Farrell’s suggestion that she had repeatedly lied to her partner about her whereabouts that night, saying: “It’s not a crime to tell your boyfriend a lie.”
McGregor is standing a civil trial, not a criminal one. Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions has previously decided not to prosecute the case.
The case continues.