{"id":151580,"date":"2025-11-21T07:53:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T07:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/151580\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T07:53:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T07:53:28","slug":"conor-mcgregor-to-sue-sky-news-over-rapist-question-following-civil-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/151580\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor to sue Sky News over \u2018rapist\u2019 question following civil trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">According to Mr McGregor, a Sky reporter allegedly called out to him through a &#8220;media scrum, that he was a rapist&#8221;.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">At the High Court today, Paul O&#8217;Higgins SC, appearing with Mark Lynam SC for Mr McGregor, successfully applied to Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty to serve plenary summons papers outside of the jurisdiction to intended defendants Sky News UK and Sky News Ltd.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">A plenary summons is also to be issued to Sky News Ireland, Burlington Plaza, Dublin 4, which is responsible for Sky publications in this jurisdiction, said Mr O&#8217;Higgins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">Mr O&#8217;Higgins said that on November 22 of last year, there was an encounter between Mr McGregor and Sky News outside the Four Courts complex in Dublin, which according to Mr McGregor involved a Sky reporter allegedly calling out to him through a &#8220;media scrum, that he was a rapist&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Conor McGregor\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/9a90a788-1227-4592-b968-97abf4f16704.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_caption1 sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-66f0fec7_regular sw-1d70522a_marginbottom3 sw-1d70522a_marginleft0 sw-1d70522a_marginright0 sw-1d70522a_margintop3 sw-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-70)\">Conor McGregor<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_caption1 sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-66f0fec7_regular sw-1d70522a_marginbottom3 sw-1d70522a_marginleft0 sw-1d70522a_marginright0 sw-1d70522a_margintop3 sw-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-70)\">News in 90 Seconds &#8211; November 20 2025<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">After the civil trial last year the jury awarded Ms Hand almost \u20ac250k in damages, while Mr McGregor was later ordered to pay the legal costs of the case, believed to be in the region of \u20ac1.5m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">Mr McGregor had denied the assault of Ms Hand and lost a subsequent appeal on all grounds. A bid to have alleged new witness evidence introduced in the case was dramatically withdrawn on the first day of the appeal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">Mr McGregor is now awaiting a determination from the Supreme Court over whether they will hear his appeal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">Mr O&#8217;Higgins, in an ex parte application where only one side is represented, said that the alleged words amounted to a defamation of his client in that Mr McGregor had been found by the jury to be &#8220;civilly liable&#8221; for the assault.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">Counsel said that his client&#8217;s affidavit claims that a Sky News reporter: &#8220;Called out to me &#8216;Excuse me, Mr McGregor, you are a rapist, have you any reaction or apology to the woman at the centre of this?&#8217;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">Counsel said the reporter&#8217;s words were broadcast by Sky on November 22, 2024, could be found online and amounted to defamation that occurred in this jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">Mr O&#8217;Higgins said that he was before the court today because the time limit for bringing a defamation case is one year which, he said, would expire this Saturday, November 22, 2025. He added it was only in exceptional circumstances that this could be extended.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">Mr O&#8217;Higgins said that because two of the intended defendants were outside the jurisdiction, High Court permission was needed so that those two plenary summonses could be issued to begin proceedings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-ebe0ecc6_root sw-ebe0ecc6_paragraph sw-300db776_none sw-91174671_system sw-1d70522a_marginbottom5 sw-1d70522a_margintop0 sw-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">Ms Justice Gearty said she would grant the application for the service of the plenary summonses and was told they would be issued by tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to Mr McGregor, a Sky reporter allegedly called out to him through a &#8220;media scrum, that he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-151580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}