Nikita Hand wept as she told her boyfriend that she couldn’t name the man who had raped her, as "he’ll f****** kill me."
Ms. Hand, 35, a hair colourist and mother-of-one from Drimnagh, Dublin, has accused both MMA star Conor McGregor and another man, James Lawrence, of raping her in the penthouse suite of a hotel in the capital when she was drunk and on cocaine.
Both men deny the allegation, and claim that the sex in December 2018, the day after the alleged victim’s work Christmas party, was consensual.
A harrowing recording of her 2am conversation was played to the High Court during the third day of Ms. Hand’s civil case against Mr McGregor.
In it, her boyfriend tells her: "This isn’t a 'shut up and say nothing' situation. This s*** doesn’t happen any more. This thing about keeping quiet about stuff is not f****** happening."
Concerned
He also said he was concerned for the "other girls" she told him she was with.
During Ms. Hand’s cross-examination, Mr. McGregor’s barrister, Remy Farrell, said he was going to play an audio recording made by her then-partner Stephen Redmond after Ms. Hand returned home.
In the recording, Ms. Hand could be heard sobbing and in a highly distressed state, telling her boyfriend she had been raped.
She also wept in the witness box as the tape was played to the court, holding her head in her hands and screening her face with her hair.
On the audio, in a muffled voice, she was heard to say: "I told him no. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry."
Her partner replied: "Just tell me what happened. Tell me."
Ms. Hand is heard responding: "In the Morgan… in the penthouse. He choked me. I can’t tell you who it was yet."
The court has heard she believed she was at the Morgan Hotel in Temple Bar, when she was actually in the Beacon in Sandyford.
She said she was with a number of girls from the salon, but refused to say whose apartment she was in.
"I can’t tell you who it was. He’ll f****** kill me," she said.
Mr. Redmond responded: "Nikita, you’re going to have to."
"I can’t," she said. "He told me he’d kill me."
Mr. Redmond said: "Look at me for a second… I’m not giving out."
Ms. Hand told him she had been to her salon manager Emer’s house before coming home, and that she had told Emer who had raped her, and Emer had taken photos of her body.
"Tell me"
Mr. Redmond insisted: "You have to tell me where you went."
She replied: "I don’t want to. I’m frightened."
He said: "Nothing is going to happen."
She responded: "It is. He told me he’d kill me," adding later: "I’m sorry. It’s not my fault. It’s not my fault."
Mr. Redmond said: "You’re after telling me you’re after being raped."
He asked who she met in town. "No please, I can’t face it," she replied.
"Guards"
He continued: "I’m going to call the guards."
"Don’t do that, please," Ms. Hand said. "Just look after me. I’ll sort it out."
Mr. Redmond replied: "This isn’t a 'shut up and say nothing' situation. This s*** doesn’t happen anymore. This thing about keeping quiet about stuff nout f****** happening."
He asks if the girls she was with are still in town. "How do you know if something is going to happen to them?" he asked. She told him they had gone home.
He replied: "I want to know where you were tonight. Stop leaving out details and changing things. I want to know where you were."
Ms. Hand told him she went into town at 1 pm from the salon, and went straight into an apartment at the Morgan.
"So you’re there all day?" he asked, again asking her who she was with.
"I can’t say who, Steve," Ms. Hand said. "He warned me."
Her boyfriend replied: "I don’t give a f*** who warned you or threatened you, I just want to know where you were."
He continued: "Listen to me for a second. You’re going to fall asleep, you’re going to wake up and you’re only going to remember half of what you did and that’s a big f****** problem.
"You’re obviously very drunk… Please tell me what happened. I’m begging you, I’m your fella."
He said he was trying to "figure out" what had happened and who had brought her to the penthouse.
"How do you think I feel right now?" Ms. Hand is heard to respond.
"Look at my knuckles from fighting back. He was choking me and I couldn’t breathe. He choked me three times.
"Just be there for me. Who cares who it was. It doesn’t matter. He still hurt me."
She told Mr. Redmond there were two men present.
She said: "I was there for a party and coke and drink. That’s why I was there."
"It doesn’t sound like a party," he replied.
At a later stage in the recording, he asked why she could not tell him, when she had told Emer.
November 7, 2024: Nikita Hand leaves court in Dublin. (RollingNews.ie)
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Cross-examination
"Emer is not going to say anything," Ms. Hand responded. "You will. You’ll tell the nation."
She also told him: "I’m after being f****** sexually abused… I’m after being raped and all you care about is you. Putting your arms around me and asking me am I okay is what you should be doing."
She can also be heard asking: "Why me? Why me? Why me?"
Mr. Redmond told her: "We need to do something about this" and: "This is not being kept a secret."
Earlier in the cross examination, Mr. Farrell had said he would put his client’s version of events to Ms. Hand, some of which he warned might find "offensive and upsetting."
He asked her if she remembered Mr. McGregor chatting up and "flirting" with her friend, Danielle. She said she could not remember.
"Was James chatting her up?" he asked.
"I don’t have a clue," she replied.
"Disgusting"
Mr. Farrell continued: "So I’m going to suggest to you, you and Mr. McGregor started kissing and that he had his belt of his jeans open at this stage because he was using the toilet."
Ms. Hand responded: "I don’t agree."
Mr. Farrell said: "You largely took your own clothes off and he took his off and you’re both sexually excited… You started to give Mr. McGregor oral sex and then went and had sex on the bed."
Ms. Hand said: "No" and: "I don’t agree."
Mr. Farrell said that Danielle and Mr. Lawrence were having sex at a similar time, and that at one stage Ms. Hand had walked in and was "messing and slagging them."
"That’s disgusting. I don’t agree with any of that," she replied.
She also denied the description of the sex she was said to have had with Mr. McGregor.
"No. None of this is true…This is like a made-up story," she said.
The case continues.
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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