Gardai are investigating if a couple who claimed in court documents that they had seen Nikita Hand’s ex-partner beat her up on the same night that she was raped by former MMA fighter Conor McGregor were not living at the property in which they said they were at the time.
Affidavits sworn by Steven Cummins and Samantha O’Reilly, who were named as witnesses in Mr McGregor’s failed civil court rape appeal, are currently being investigated by officers from the Garda National Bureau of One Criminal Investigation (NBCI) for suspected perjury.
The couple previously rented a house directly across the road from Ms Hand in Drimnagh on Dublin’s southside.
A file image of Conor McGregor. Pic: Arnold Jerocki/FilmMagic
However, it is understood one of the lines of inquiry being pursued by investigators is that Mr Cummins and Ms O’Reilly, who currently live in the Cherry Orchard area of the capital, were not actually living at the address when they claim they saw Ms Hand being assaulted by her former partner on the night of December 9, 2018.
When approached by the Irish Mail on Sunday this week and asked directly if they lived at the address at the time, and to confirm the couple’s whereabouts on the night, Ms O’Reilly responded by throwing a basin of water at our reporter from the top window of her council-owned home.
Speaking through the window, she said: ‘I do not want to be answering any questions and I do not want to be harassed. I am politely asking you to leave my premises please. No comment.’
Asked again if she could confirm if the couple lived in the Drimnagh property on the night they claimed they saw Ms Hand being assaulted, she asked, ‘Excuse me, what was the question?’, before emptying a basin of water out the window.
She then loudly asked one of her children to get a ‘kettle of water’.
31/07/2025 Dublin, Ireland. Photo shows Nikita Hand leaving the High Court following the decision of Ireland’s Court of Appeal to deny Conor McGregor’s appeal against a High Court jury’s finding that he raped Nikita Hand. Photograph: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie
Ms O’Reilly added: ‘I’m giving you an opportunity to actually be safe. Do you want to have a water fight? Well, I want to have a water fight. It’s a nice, sunny day.’
The owners of the Drimnagh house the couple previously rented said they could not comment when asked if the couple lived at the address at the time they claim they witnessed the alleged attack on Ms Hand, who has vehemently denied she was ever assaulted by her former partner.
Approached by the Mail, they said they had been ‘instructed by gardaí not to comment’.
Neighbours on the Drimnagh street where Mr Cummins and Ms O’Reilly temporarily lived across from Ms Hand said the couple lived there for a short time, and some struggled to remember what they looked like.
Mr Cummins and Ms O’Reilly were due to give evidence at Mr McGregor’s appeal against a civil case verdict after a jury found him liable for assault and ordered him to pay Ms Hand damages.
Ms Hand, 35, accused Mr McGregor of raping her in a hotel penthouse in Dublin on December 9, 2018.
Conor McGregor and Dee Devlin. Pic: Marc Piasecki/FilmMagic
Mr McGregor, 36, denied the allegation, claiming they had consensual, ‘vigorous’ sex. He appealed the verdict. But on the morning the hearing was due to proceed last month, Mr Cummins and Ms O’Reilly’s evidence was dramatically withdrawn at the last minute.
Ms Hand described the couple’s statements as untrue and lies.
The Court of Appeal said the application to introduce the evidence was abandoned in ‘somewhat mysterious’ circumstances with no plausible reason given and awarded Ms Hand costs at the highest possible level.
Judge Brian O’Moore noted the abandonment by Mr McGregor of the application could only be viewed by the court as an acknowledgment that Ms Hand was correct. He also said her lawyers had not been exaggerating when they said this ‘new evidence’ had put Ms Hand through the wringer. The judge said she had prevailed in one of the most hard-fought trials of recent years.
The judge said she had prevailed in one of the most hard-fought trials of recent years.
Speaking outside court, Ms Hand said: ‘This appeal has retraumatised me over and over again, being forced to relive it. What happened has had a huge impact on me. To every survivor out there, I know how hard it is, but please don’t be silenced. You deserve to be heard. You also deserve justice.’
Nikita Hand. Photograph: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie
Following the failed appeal, Mr Cummins and Ms O’Reilly’s sworn statements were referred by the Court of Appeal to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) after Ms Hand’s legal team raised concerns about suspected perjury, and the ‘subornation of perjury’ by McGregor.
The Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) later received correspondence from the DPP.
Last weekend, An Garda Síochána confirmed the NBCI was investigating allegations of perjury involving statements given by the couple named as witnesses in the failed appeal.