{"id":176016,"date":"2025-12-05T05:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T05:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/176016\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T05:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T05:41:08","slug":"supreme-court-rejects-conor-mcgregors-appeal-bid-nikita-hand-welcomes-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/176016\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court rejects Conor McGregor\u2019s appeal bid, Nikita Hand welcomes decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nikita Hand said \u201cthe Irish civil justice system has allowed my voice to be heard\u201d after the Supreme Court refused to hear appeals from Conor McGregor and James Lawrence, in relation to her civil case against them.<\/p>\n

Last year, Ms Hand, also known as Nikita Ni Laimhin, successfully sued the mixed martial arts fighter in a civil court over an incident in which he was alleged to have \u201cbrutally raped and battered\u201d her in a penthouse at a south Dublin hotel in December 2018.<\/p>\n

Ms Hand was awarded almost \u20ac250,000 in damages and McGregor was also ordered to pay about \u20ac1.3 million in legal costs.<\/p>\n

The same jury did not find Mr Lawrence had assaulted Ms Hand at the hotel, but the trial judge decided that Ms Hand would not have to pay his costs.<\/p>\n

Mr McGregor\u2019s application to the Supreme Court was in relation to his cross-examination, during the trial, about \u201cno comment\u201d answers he gave during a Garda interview.<\/p>\n

\"NikitaNikita Hand was awarded about \u20ac250,000 in damages (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

In their determination on Thursday, the Supreme Court judges said they were \u201csatisfied that the applicant has had a fair hearing\u201d and refused him leave to appeal.<\/p>\n

Mr Lawrence was attempting to appeal the decision not to award costs, but the court also denied his appeal, saying the lower court had applied \u201cwell-established principles in relation to costs\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement issued via her solicitors, Coleman Legal, Ms Hand said: \u201cThe public and private roads that I and my loved ones have travelled have been long and painful.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday marks not a victory for me but for all of those who have been treated as I have.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are never alone on your journey, if you choose not to be. Help and support is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She described the decision as a \u201cvictory for the justice system\u201d and thanked the medics who treated her, her legal team and the advocates who \u201cwork tirelessly for the healing of victims\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Hand added: \u201cI say to all of us who have made or are about to make this difficult journey towards justice; Our voice is the most powerful thing we have, don\u2019t be afraid to use it!\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the groups Ms Hand thanked in her statement was Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.<\/p>\n

The organisation\u2019s chief executive Rachel Morrogh said in a statement: \u201cWe are proud to have supported her on this journey and send her our best wishes for continued health and healing as she rebuilds her life with her family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that other survivors take courage and hope from Nikita\u2019s case.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nikita Hand said \u201cthe Irish civil justice system has allowed my voice to be heard\u201d after the Supreme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-176016","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\/176016","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=176016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}