Judge warning as final witness in case of woman alleging rape by Conor McGregor gives evidence before closing speeches

A JURY will hear closing speeches in the civil action of MMA star Conor McGregor and his friend James Lawrence next week – before deciding whether they sexually assaulted hair colourist Nikita Hand or not.

Judge Alex Owens today sent the eight women and four men home until Tuesday, when counsel for Ms Hand and the two defendants will make their final arguments before them.

The judge will then advise them on matters of the law, before they retire to consider their verdicts.

He described them as the “big decision makers” and urged them not to Google anything about the case over the weekend.

McGregor and Lawrence, from Rafter’s Road, Drimnagh, deny separate sexual assaults of Ms Hand on December 9, 2018 at the Beacon hotel and have said they had consensual sex with the plaintiff.

The jury has heard that Ms Hand and a work colleague, Danielle Kealy, were partying from the evening of December 8 into the morning of December 9.

Ms Hand, 35, said she had been drinking alcohol and had taken cocaine.

The jury has heard both women were picked up in McGregor’s car about 10.15am on December 9, that Lawrence was picked up some time later, and all four arrived at the hotel about 12.30pm on December 9.

CCTV footage showed McGregor and Ms Kealy leaving the hotel about 6.13pm and Ms Hand and Mr Lawrence leaving about 10.30pm.

Ms Hand said in evidence she had been raped by McGregor in the hotel. She said she had no memory of having sex with Lawrence after McGregor left the hotel.

The jury heard Ms Hand was referred to the Rotunda hospital’s sexual assault unit on December 10 and she made a statement to gardaí on January 9.

McGregor has told the court he had “fully consensual” and “energetic” sex with Ms Hand in the Beacon hotel and described her evidence about their encounter as “full of lies”.

The High Court heard today from the final witness in the case, Professor Basil John Farnham, a trained forensic practitioner and part-time GP.

Professor Farnham was asked by Remy Farrell SC, for McGregor, about the medical definition of a bruise.

The witness said: “A bruise is a discolouration of the skin, caused by blunt trauma, causes little blood vessels to be damaged and blood leak under the skin and percolates towards the skin.

“Bruising can show delay in appearance and changes in size and shapes.

“Bruises may be delayed and may not appear in the exact same position the trauma caused it, tends to blur and change colour because the red of your haemoglobin goes blue, brown and yellow and fades.”

CROSS-EXAMINATION

In cross-examination by Ray Boland SC, for Ms Hand, Professor Farnham agreed that bruising can appear within a number of hours on some tissues and that in slack tissue it can appear faster.

Mr Boland told him there had been evidence that an incident happened some time between 12.30pm and 6pm and that a friend had told the court she had taken photographs of bruising around 11 pm that night.

Asked if it was possible that bruises would show by then, he said the “fact is that some bruises can appear quickly and some can take 24 to 48 hours”.

He also said that more bruising can appear as time goes on and it can be “good practice” in forensics to do a further examination 24 hours later.

‘FLABBERGASTED’

Professor Farnan also told the court that he has treated women in the past with retained tampons.

He added that they were “flabbergasted” that they were having intercourse and were unaware.

He said a retained tampon would cause discomfort due to infection.

Evidence in the trial is now complete and the speeches from all sides will begin on Tuesday.