THE EVIDENCE IN the civil case taken by a woman who alleges that she was sexually assaulted by Mixed Martial Arts fighter Conor McGregor has concluded.
Nikita Hand (Ní Laimhín) alleges that McGregor “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 on the first day of the civil trial.
The allegations in the action, which was brought against McGregor in 2021, are fully denied.
On the eighth day of the trial, Professor Basil John Farnan appeared as a witness for McGregor before the evidence concluded.
He told the court that he was trained in clinical forensic medicine and he examined victims of various types of assault. He said he was the principal forensic medical officer in Northern Ireland for 40 years and is the deputy chief examiner at the Royal College of Physicians in the forensic and legal faculty, and he was also a part-time GP.
Remy Farrell SC, for McGregor, asked Farnan to give the medical definition of a bruise.
Farnan told the court that a bruise is a discolouration of the skin. He said it is caused by blunt trauma, which causes blood vessels under the skin to be damaged and for blood to leak out of them. He said this blood can move and percolates towards the skin.
He said that if damaged blood vessels are deep in the skin tissue, it can take 24 or 48 hours to appear on the skin. He said bruising can show delay in appearance. He said it can change it size and shape and may not appear in exactly the same position as the trauma that caused it.
Farrell also asked Farnan about Sertraline, the medication for depression that Hand had been taking in 2018.
Farnan told the court that the drug datasheet for Sertraline shows that it has a propensity to cause purpura, which are bruising in the skin.
“Also, there is a website that states that sertraline causes propensity to bruise,” Farnan told the court.
Ray Boland SC, for Hand, interjected to say that this “certainly wasn’t put” to any of the previous medical witnesses in the case by McGregor’s counsel.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens told the court that Dr Daniel Kane, the gynecologist in the Rotunda Hospital Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (SATU) who saw Hand the morning after the alleged assault and gave evidence in court last week, was asked if he knew anything about the data in relation to Sertraline.
“It certainly wasn’t put that it causes propensity to bruising,” Boland said.
Farrell said he would move on. Asking him about his experience as a GP, Farrell asked about issuing medication that can be given vaginally.
Farnan said he has prescribed pessaries of various types for infections or for hormone treatment. He said that “very often, when we prescribe these, the ladies will say ‘Can I have relations with my husband?’, and the answer is ‘Yes, that shouldn’t be a problem’.”
Farnan referred to Estring, a HRT-treatment that is made of flexible plastic that is inserted into the vagina. Farnan said it stays in the vagina for 90 days.
“Everyone asks can I have intercourse and the answer is yes,” Farnan said. “And the data sheet says it shouldn’t cause a problem with intercourse.”
Farrell also asked Farnan about tampons.
“‘Can I have sex with a tampon is not really question asked of a doctor,” Farnan told the court.
He said he had experience with “a small number of ladies over the years” that he had treated where they had been wearing a tampon and forgotten it was there.
“These ladies will present with very difficult offensive vaginal discharge and often they do not believe a tampon is there and then a tampon is removed,” he said.
Farnan said he could remember one case where the woman was “flabbergasted” and said that she and her husband had been having sex and did not know the tampon was there.
Farrell asked about cases where a tampon has been retained and there has been discomfort. Farnan said a retained tampon could cause discomfort and discharge.
Asked why, Farnan said it can cause infection. He said retained tampons are known to be a cause of toxic shock syndrome, and when inserted for too long, it can get infected and is dangerous.
Ray Boland SC, for McGregor, then cross-examined Farnan. He asked if it was fair to say that bruising can appear within a number of hours of trauma occurring.
“The answer is yes,” Farnan said. He said it very much depends on the skin tissue. He said some tissues are quite slack where blood can percolate quickly and appear on the skin, whereas some tissues are quite dense and bruising can take longer to appear.
Boland put it to Farnan that Hand claims that the alleged assault occurred at sometime between 12.30pm and 6pm on 9 December 2018 and that this bruising was photographed by the manager of her salon, Emer Brennan, at around 11pm that same evening.
Last week, Brennan gave evidence that Hand had asked her to take photographs of her body and she did, but that she later deleted the photographs.
Remy Farrell, for McGregor, interjected to say that these photographs were deleted.
Justice Owens asked Farnan if it was possible that the bruising would have appeared by the time the salon manager said she took the photographs of Hand.
“The fact is some bruises can appear quickly, while some take 24-48 hours,” Farnan said.
He said it depended on when the trauma happened, when they were seen and when they were photographed. He said that as time passes, more bruises can then appear.
Boland put it to Farnan that partial bruising could have appeared on the evening of 9 December 2018 and that more could have appeared the following day.
Farnan said that more bruising can appear as time passes. He said it is often seen as good forensic practice to do a further examination “and take another set of photos” 24 hours later.
Boland then asked Farnan if he had ever been asked by a patient if they could have sex with a tampon in. Farnan said he had never been asked that particular question.
“Presumably on basis that no one would choose to have sex with a tampon in?” Boland asked.
“I couldn’t make a comment on that,” Farnan said.
The evidence from both sides of the case has now concluded.
Addressing the jury, Mr Justice Owens said he now had to discuss legal issues with counsel. He said that the jury would be sent home until Tuesday, when the closing arguments will be made from both sides of the case.
He told the jury that after those legal discussions, an issue paper will be produced for the jury and that they will be answering questions in their role as decision makers.
He said that counsel will address them in relation to the facts and that they must “evaluate the facts and come to conclusions”.
Mr Justice Owens told the jury that over the course of the weekend, they were not entitled to google anything or “to consult the law yourselves” because he was there to do that.
“Over the weekend, you’re not going to google what an assault is or what damages are because I’m going to explain that to you,” he said, adding that they were not to have their “own personal lawyers sitting in your laps”.
He told the jury that if they had difficulty with his explanation of matters, they could “come back to me” for further explanation.
The closing stages of the civil trial, before Mr Justice Owens and a jury of eight women and four men, will begin on Tuesday.
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