{"id":35874,"date":"2025-07-31T21:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35874\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T21:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:40:09","slug":"former-mma-fighter-conor-mcgregor-loses-appeal-against-civil-rape-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35874\/","title":{"rendered":"Former MMA fighter Conor McGregor loses appeal against civil rape case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/4M7KR1T_copyright_image_268796\" width=\"1050\" height=\"656\" alt=\"Conor McGregor\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nConor McGregor.<br \/>\nPhoto: INPHO\n<\/p>\n<p>Former mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Conor McGregor has lost his attempt to overturn a civil jury&#8217;s order that he compensate a woman who accused him of raping her, with Ireland&#8217;s Court of Appeal rejecting the bid in its entirety.<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiff, Nikita Hand, alleged that McGregor &#8211; one of the world&#8217;s highest-paid athletes &#8211; sexually assaulted her in a Dublin hotel room on 9 December, 2018.<\/p>\n<p>A jury last year ordered McGregor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/sport\/534602\/mma-star-conor-mcgregor-found-liable-for-assaulting-woman-in-2018-jury-finds\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to pay her nearly \u20ac250,000 in damages<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>McGregor, 36, denied the allegation and said he had &#8220;fully consensual sex&#8221; with Hand.<\/p>\n<p>The ex-Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) star also denied causing bruising to the plaintiff.<\/p>\n<p>Hand last year said that she and a friend made contact with McGregor, who she knew, after a work Christmas party.<\/p>\n<p>She said they were driven by McGregor to a party in a penthouse room of a south Dublin hotel where drugs and alcohol were consumed.<\/p>\n<p>The verdict against McGregor was reached at the conclusion of a two-week civil trial in Ireland&#8217;s high court, by a jury of eight women and four men.<\/p>\n<p>They handed down their decision after just over six hours of deliberations.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking outside the court in November last year after the initial verdict was handed down, Hand said she was overwhelmed by the support she had received and felt vindicated.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I hope my story is a reminder that no matter how afraid you might be, speak up,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>The now-retired MMA star earnt $180 million in 2021, making him the world&#8217;s highest paid athlete in 2021, according to Forbes.<\/p>\n<p>In March this year, McGregor was invited to the White House by United States President Donald Trump on St Patrick&#8217;s Day, where the former UFC champion made various <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/world\/545646\/conor-mcgregor-announces-run-for-irish-presidency-on-anti-immigration-platform\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">anti-immigration comments in relation to Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s about time that America is made aware of what&#8217;s going on in Ireland. What is going on in Ireland is a travesty,&#8221; McGregor said, ahead of an Oval Office meeting with the US president.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor. Photo: INPHO Former mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Conor McGregor has lost his attempt to overturn&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,1590,63,1589,786,785,44,1591,1588,1586,1587,85],"class_list":["post-35874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-audio","tag-australia","tag-current-affairs","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}