{"id":313280,"date":"2026-02-23T16:47:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T16:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/313280\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T16:47:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T16:47:06","slug":"nikita-hand-set-to-be-awarded-damages-after-former-neighbours-fail-to-respond-to-lawsuit-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/313280\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikita Hand set to be awarded damages after former neighbours fail to respond to lawsuit \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court<\/a> is set to assess damages owed to Nikita Hand<\/a> by her former neighbours after they failed to respond to Hand\u2019s claim for damages accusing them of abusing court processes. <\/p>\n

Samantha O\u2019Reilly and Steven Cummins had been due to give evidence in Conor McGregor<\/a>\u2019s appeal of a civil jury finding in favour of Hand, who sued the former mixed martial arts fighter over alleged rape in a Dublin hotel. <\/p>\n

At the hearing of McGregor\u2019s Court of Appeal (CoA) challenge last July, an application to admit sworn statements by O\u2019Reilly and Cummins was dramatically withdrawn. <\/p>\n

McGregor had said fresh evidence provided by O\u2019Reilly and Cummins bolstered his claim he was not responsible for bruising on Hand\u2019s body following the hotel assault. <\/p>\n

Hand, in an affidavit, had strongly rejected her former neighbours\u2019 evidence.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the three-judge court unanimously dismissed the appeal, Hand filed a lawsuit seeking damages against McGregor, Cummins and O\u2019Reilly for \u201cmalicious abuse\u201d of court processes. <\/p>\n

On Monday Judge Emily Egan granted judgment to Hand in default of appearance against O\u2019Reilly and Cummins. She placed a stay on the orders for four weeks. <\/p>\n

In High Court actions solicitors for a defendant must file an \u201cappearance\u201d within a set period if they intend to defend the action. McGregor\u2019s solicitors, Mulholland Law, have entered an appearance in Hand\u2019s case. <\/p>\n

Si\u00fan Leonowicz, barrister for Hand instructed by Coleman Legal LLP, told the judge Hand\u2019s case arose from the \u201cconduct\u201d of McGregor\u2019s CoA appeal.<\/p>\n

Leonowicz opened to the court documents showing proof of Hand\u2019s lawyers\u2019 service of the proceedings on Cummins and O\u2019Reilly at their addresses last August. Counsel said Hand\u2019s side had received no response from either defendant. <\/p>\n

The documents show that Cummins and O\u2019Reilly were served with court papers at an address in Cherry Orchard Green, Ballyfermot.<\/p>\n

The judge granted an order for judgment in default of appearance against Cummins and O\u2019Reilly, with the damages they owe to Hand to be assessed by a judge at a later date. <\/p>\n

The judge placed a stay on the orders for four weeks, allowing the defendants time to make an application to set aside the orders.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I know what happened in that room\u2019: the full story of the Conor McGregor caseOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In the affidavits filed in McGregor\u2019s CoA appeal, Cummins and O\u2019Reilly alleged that they witnessed a physical altercation between Hand and her then partner Stephen Redmond on the night of December 9th, 2018. <\/p>\n

In an affidavit Hand described her neighbours\u2019 claims as lies and said Redmond never assaulted her that night or at any time during their relationship.<\/p>\n

Following the CoA\u2019s dismissal of the challenge, McGregor sought a further appeal to the Supreme Court. That court refused to hear his appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court is set to assess damages owed to Nikita Hand by her former neighbours after they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1714,42,73,43,1717,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-313280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-conor-mcgregor","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-high-court","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-nikita-hand","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313280","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=313280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}