LAST UPDATE | 5 Nov
A HIGH COURT jury has been told that Mixed Martial Arts fighter Conor McGregor sexually assaulted a woman who then had to have a tampon that was embedded in her vagina removed with a forceps.
Nikita Ní Laimhín (35) alleges that McGregor (36) “sexually assaulted her, and in effect, raped her” in a hotel penthouse in Dublin on 9 December 2018, and that a second defendant, James Lawrence, of Rafter’s Road, Drimnagh, “did likewise”, Mr Justice Alexander Owens told the jury this morning.
The allegations in the action are fully denied.
The action was brought in 2021 against McGregor. All three of the parties involved in the proceedings were present in court.
Addressing the jury, John Gordon SC, on behalf of the plaintiff, said the case “may seem complicated but in fact is extremely simple”.
He told the jury that the case provides “a route to vindication” for his client, and that it is the only means available to her to have a jury say she was wronged and to vindicate her.
He said the core facts of the case could be communicated in five or six sentences. “Surrounding those facts is a great deal of noise, artifice, but none that gets away from the facts,” he said.
Gordon said that Ní Laimhín was born on 25 February 1989. He said she is a qualified hair colourist and that she had a very good career in the hairdressing business.
On 8 December 2018, Ní Laimhín went to her work Christmas party. At that time, she lived in Drimnagh with her partner Stephen and their then seven-year-old daughter.
Gordon said Ní Laimhín and some friends went to the party in Dundrum at around 8pm or 9pm that evening before proceeding to The Goat Bar and Grill in Goatstown.
He said that prior to these events, Ní Laimhín had been in contact with McGregor. He said they were in the same age group, lived in the same area and had mutual friends. McGregor was then “enormously famous” and in Drimnagh, he was “the hero of the hour”, he said.
He said both parties were in communication from time to time.
He said that during the course of the evening, Ní Laimhín – “who is no angel and doesn’t pretend to be an angel” – was “partying hard”.
“She had lots to drink. Her spirit of choice is Bacardi. She also had some beer and she also had some cocaine,” Gordon said.
Prior to this, she was on 50 milligrams of Sertraline as she has depression. “It’s important that that is known to you so you understand the entire mix of stimulants that were going through her system,” he said.
He said that after the pub closed, Ní Laimhín and two friends went back to the salon where she worked and continued to party throughout the night. They wanted to keep going, and Ní Laimhín made contact with McGregor, he said.
On the morning of 9 December, McGregor picked up Ní Laimhín and one of her friends. All three of them were in the backseat of the car and McGregor’s security guard was driving.
He said that during the course of her evidence, Ní Laimhín will say that she understood that they were going on to another party. “But in fact, they weren’t going to another party,” Gordon said.
He said that after driving around various housing estates, they eventually came to the front door of James Lawrence. He said Ní Laimhín will say that McGregor went into the house for around 15 or 20 minutes before emerging from the house with a bag of cocaine alongside Lawrence.
Gordon told the court that Ní Laimhín will tell the jury that the cocaine was shared between her, her friend and McGregor.
She will say that coincidentally, the plaintiff had just started her period on 8 December and she was using a tampon, he said.
“She will tell you that she would not have sex during her period. She will tell you that she would certainly not have sex with her tampon in situ,” he told the court.
He told the court that the four of them went to the Beacon Hotel “but as far as Nikita was concerned, it could have been anywhere”.
Ní Laimhín, her friend, McGregor and Lawrence then went into an underground car park and were taken in a lift up to the penthouse suite on the top floor, he said.
He told the court that Ní Laimhín will say that they were all drinking and having a laugh, but at one point, McGregor went into the bathroom and asked Ní Laimhín to “suck his cock”.
“She refused. He then subsequently comes on to her. She does not want to have intercourse with Mr McGregor. She wants to have a good time like she was having all night,” Gordon told the court.
“But [McGregor] actually pinned her onto the bed. She was clearly no physical match for Mr McGregor. She will tell you that she was nervous, she tried to push him off her but she was completely unable to do so.”
Gordon told the court that when the jury is given photographs, they will see that this was “some effort”.
“You will see her hands and wrists are black and blue.You will also see that on her left breast there is a bloodied scratch. The reason for the bloodied scratch is because she was wearing her watch. She had her hands up in front of her trying to keep him off and as he pressed down on her, she scratched her breast,” Gordon told the court.
Gordon told the court that McGregor then flipped Ní Laimhín over and put her in an arm lock and drew her up by the neck “until she can’t breathe, and then lets go, then he does it again, and then lets go”.
“When he does it a third time, she gives up. She can’t resist this anymore,” he told the court.
He said that during the course of this, McGregor told Ní Laimhín, ‘Now you know what it was like in the octagon when I was down three times’.
Gordon said that at this point, Ní Laimhín was “completely terrified”.
“So she subjected herself to what was about to happen, and what was about to happen was a violent, vicious assault,” he told the court.
“There was no time for removing tampons. He drove the tampon right up to the back of her vagina. They had to use a forceps to take it out in the hospital.”
He told the court that Ní Laimhín fell asleep. He said that McGregor says that he had sex with Ní Laimhín a second time, but she doesn’t recall.
He told the court that McGregor and Ní Laimhín’s friend ultimately left, leaving Ní Laimhín and Lawrence in the suite.
“At this point, the plaintiff’s conduct will seem to you extraordinary,” he told the jury, adding that she did not call 999 or “rush down the corridor” to get somebody.
“She was, of course, full of drugs and she proceeded in what seems to have been a state of elation,” he said.
Gordon told the court that Ní Laimhín recalls asking Lawrence “How do you turn a blind eye to this?”
He told the court that Ní Laimhín cried and pointed out her bruises, but remained in the penthouse with Lawrence for some hours. They went out in a car, came back to the room and were there until around 7pm on the evening of 9 December when they shared a taxi and went to their respective homes.
Gordon told the court that Ní Laimhím made no complaint against Lawrence, but on 4 February, she was advised for the first time that Lawrence would tell the court that while they were together, after McGregor had left, that they had sex twice.
“My client has no recollection of such an event ever happening. You will have to decide some time from now on what you make of all of that,” he said.
He told the court that the following morning, Ní Laimhín’s partner “is not very happy” with what he saw but he had to take their child to school and go to work. Ní Laimhín went to her mother’s house.
“She will tell you that on her mind was the state of her, but more immediately, she was deeply concerned about the tampon embedded in her vagina and her initial plan was to go to the A&E,” Gordon told the court.
“She will tell you that she didn’t want to make a complaint. She didn’t want to identify who did it to her because she was frightened, but her mother was having none of it.”
Ní Laimhín’s mother phoned 999 and Gardaí and an ambulance arrived at the house before Ní Laimhín was taken by ambulance to the Rotunda Hospital.
Gordon told the jury that they will see footage from the ambulance and hear from the ambulance personnel, “but you may take it that she was an absolute wreck. Constantly weeping, shivering, in pain, unable to get comfortable.”
Ní Laimhín was taken to the outpatients unit of the hospital before being referred to the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit, around nine hours after the alleged assault, Gordon said.
He said a full forensic examination of Ní Laimhín was carried out, and that the doctor made notes and prepared a report. He said the doctor also directed that photographs of Ní Laimhín’s injuries at the soonest opportunity, and that this was done the following morning by a member of An Garda Síochána.
“On the face of this, Mr McGregor tells you that this was a consensual encounter. That they were just having fun and a bit of rough sex. That’s his answer,” Gordon told the jury.
“What did I say about your common sense? Don’t ever be fooled about leaving it behind you in this room. What he is saying to you is that she consented, she gave him licence to carry out what has to have been a really brutal assault on her body. I think you will find it unimaginable that anybody would do that.”
The defence claimed in the evidence booklet that Ní Laimhín had several opportunities to complain to people about how she was treated but did not. It will also claim that Ní Laimhín is engaged in an attempt at extortion, the court heard.
Gordon said that his client is being called a “gold digger and a fraud”, adding: “Brave. But where is the bravery in this? Bravery ultimately sits with my client.
“Because she pursued her mission for vindication and compensation to which she is entitled, and for these defendants to breezily, cheekily dispose of her claim is something you will consider in due course.”
The jury were shown documentation, including photographs of Ní Laimhín’s alleged injuries and a diagram of the body which was marked with where the alleged injuries were present on the morning that she attended the Rotunda Hospital SATU.
Gordon told the court that the incident had a “profound and lasting effect” on Ní Laimhín.
He told the court that she started attending the Rape Crisis Centre on 18 December and continued to attend weekly for “a very long time”.
“She found it helpful, but it didn’t solve all of her problems.”
He told the court that Ní Laimhín suffers from depression, stress and panic attacks. He said she is “frightened” in the area that she is living in. “She’s frightened of Mr McGregor. She’ll tell you that’s why she didn’t identify him,” he said.
He told the court that she went back to work for a period, but stopped going. He said she receives a disability pension and that she no longer lives in Drimnagh.
Her relationship with her partner at the time ended around two years after the incident, he said.
Gordon told the court that Ní Laimhín “needs closure and vindication”.
“She needs to be able to hold her head up high having called out this appalling travesty,” he said.
The court also heard from Dr Daniel Kane, the gynaecologist who examined Ní Laimhín when she presented to the Rotunda Hospital on the morning of 10 December 2018.
Kane was a Senior House Officer at the time and also a forensic medical examiner at the hospital’s Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (SATU).
He told the court that Ní Laimhín alleged that she was physically and sexually assaulted and that she was concerned that there was a tampon wedged inside her vagina.
He said that after explaining her options to her, Ní Laimhín decided to undergo a full forensic examination with Garda involvement, and that he then referred her to the SATU.
Reading from his report from the morning of the examination, Kane told the jury that he noted that Ní Laimhín was “very upset” throughout the examination. He said that she was “shaking and crying” throughout and found it very difficult to sit comfortably, adding that he arranged for a blanket for her to sit on.
He told the jury that the examination was paused “on numerous occasions” to let Ní Laimhín have a break, and at one point, she felt weak and had to sit down.
He said that Ní Laimhín told him that she was out with a friend at a hotel and that she couldn’t remember what happened. She told him that they were “drinking and having a laugh” and that the night was “very blurry”.
He said that she told him: “In the room, that’s where it happened. I bit him a good few times. He had me by the neck, he stopped me from breathing a few times. I thought he was going to kill me. I don’t remember going asleep. I was confused.”
Kane gave details of the “multiplicity” of injuries that he noted on Ní Laimhín’s body during the exam, including an abrasion on the right side of her jaw that had been bleeding, a purple bruise on her neck that “looked like a lovebite”, a nine centimetre abrasion on her left breast, purple bruises on her arms, legs and shoulders and “extensive bruising” on her buttocks. Four of her acrylic nails were missing.
He told the jury that the tampon was “wedged” at the top of Ní Laimhín’s vagina and that he removed it using a forceps.
He said there was dried blood on Ní Laimhín’s vagina and a possible internal tear inside that was difficult to determine because she was menstruating.
Under cross examination by Remy Farrell SC for McGregor, Kane was asked whether it was possible to have vaginal intercourse with a tampon in place.
He told the court that out of 340 forensic examinations that he had performed, “this is the only time I’ve encountered” a retained tampon after sexual intercourse.
Later in the afternoon, Nikita Ní Laimhín began giving testimony at the trial.
She told the court that she grew up in Drimnagh and that she knew McGregor because he was friends with her cousins and she was friends with his friends.
She said that on the evening of 8 December, the salon where she had worked for around ten years closed at 4pm and she and her friends began getting ready to go to the Christmas party.
She told the court that after posting photos to her Instagram story, McGregor commented under one of them to ask where she was and she told him she was at her Christmas party.
She said that she was drinking Bacardi and Coke at her Christmas party and had taken cocaine with some of the other women at the party.
She said that after around three hours, the group went to The Goat bar where they had a meal, drank more and took more cocaine. After the pub closed, they got takeaway drinks and returned to the salon. They continued to drink until early hours of the morning.
Ní Laimhín said she had asked her partner if she could stay out and he said it was no problem as he understood that it was her Christmas party.
She said the group were trying to wait around until the pub reopened, but some of her friends left. She said she and another friend were still in the salon at around 8am on 9 December.
She said she discussed with her friend that there was no point in waiting for the pub to reopen, and she said she would contact McGregor to see if they could go to another party.
She said she sent him a message on Instagram to send him her number and he did. She said she told him where they were and he said he would collect them. She said there were several phone calls between them and that her friend did not believe he would come at all.
Ní Laimhín said McGregor arrived in a car at around 9am in the carpark of the salon. She said his security guard was driving and that she and her friend got into the back of the car where McGregor was seated.
She said she brought alcohol from the salon with them and they drank it in the car. “The mood was grand at that point. We were just having a laugh and the car was driving around for a good while,” she told the court.
Ní Laimhín said the mood changed in the car after McGregor began to brag about the watch he was wearing. She said her friend told him to “shut up and stop showing off”, which made him become “annoyed and aggressive” with her friend.
She told the court that McGregor told the driver of the car to pull over to let her friend out, but that she calmed both McGregor and her friend down. “I didn’t want any trouble, I just wanted to continue to have a good time.”
After this, the situation calmed. McGregor said “you like me now” to her friend and the mood was “grand” again, she said.
Ní Laimhín said the car “kept driving to different houses and the driver would just beep” as though they were waiting for someone to come out, but no one did. She said she felt embarrassed by this. She said there was no discussion about where they were going and that she and her friend thought they were going to a party with other people.
After stopping outside two or three houses, they stopped outside James Lawrence’s house. Ní Laimhín said she had never been in Lawrence’s company but that she knew of him and he was friends with her cousins.
She said she remembers McGregor got out of the car and went into Lawrence’s house. She said they were sitting outside for a very long time. She asked the security guard why he was taking so long, who replied “Conor takes as long as he takes”.
She said that McGregor had cocaine when they left the house. Lawrence sat in the front of the car. She said he was friendly.
She said they eventually drove to an underground car park. She said she didn’t know where she was but she knew at this point that it was a hotel.
After getting out of the car, they walked through a door to an elevator and they were brought up to the penthouse suite of the hotel.
She said the mood was good when they arrived and drinks were brought out. She said she remembers there being around three security guards “coming in and out”.
Ní Laimhín told the jury that she remembers walking into the bedroom of the suite not long after they had arrived, and McGregor was going to the bathroom in the ensuite. He told her to “suck on that”, referring to his penis, she said.
“I just walked off. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it,” she told the court.
She said that she remembers that subsequently, she was in the bedroom with McGregor on their own. They were both fully dressed.
“I remember standing beside the bed and he was coming on to me. He started to try to kiss me and rubbing my face. I knew what he was looking for,” she told the court.
She told the court that she told McGregor that she did not feel comfortable and that she talked about McGregor’s partner, Dee Devlin, saying that she knew her family and that her partner at the time was close friends with Devlin’s brother.
“I was kind of trying to talk him around. I wasn’t there to have sex or anything like that. Instead of making it really awkward, I tried to talk him around. He wasn’t taking no for an answer. He pinned me onto the bed. He kept telling me to ‘relax, baby relax’ and rubbing my face,” she told the court.
She said that McGregor pinned her down on the bed. “I remember putting my arms up. I held them up against my chest.”
The evidence will resume tomorrow.
Ní Laimhín is represented by Ray Boland SC, John Gordon SC and Siún Leonowicz BL.
McGregor is represented by Remy Farrell SC.
Additional reporting by IINA.
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