‘Ms Hand mentioned that I by no means had intercourse together with her – so why am I right here?’ Conor McGregor’s buddy says he felt ‘peer pressured’ by girl accusing them of rape into having intercourse together with her – and denied she was too drunk to consent

MMA fighter Conor McGregor has denied that he thought of using his friend as a ‘patsy’ or ‘fall guy’ when he was himself faced with an accusation of rape.

During his second day of cross-examination at the High Court, Mr McGregor also denied booking a hotel suite ‘with the intention of bringing girls back for sex’.

Mr McGregor and his friend James Lawrence have both been sued for damages by Nikita Hand, 35, from Drimnagh, Dublin, who has alleged they both raped her in the Beacon Hotel in Dublin on December 9, 2018, following a cocaine and alcohol-fuelled after-party.

Both have denied her allegation, and claimed the sex was consensual.

Called to give evidence himself, James Lawrence told the court he would ‘never in a million years’ take the blame for a rape carried out by someone else, and would never stand up for a man who hurt a woman.

John Gordon, Ms Hand’s barrister, noted that Mr McGregor gave a two-page handwritten statement to gardaí on January 17, 2019.

Mr McGregor agreed that his solicitor had written the statement, based on his account of events. He also agreed that he had replied ‘no comment’ to more than 100 further questions from gardaí, which he said he did on the basis of legal advice.

Mr McGregor told the court: ‘This was the first time anything like this had happened to me. I was beyond petrified.’

Judge Alexander Owens told the jury that Mr McGregor was entitled to remain silent during Garda questioning, and that they could not draw any adverse inference from this. Mr McGregor told the court he was ‘here to speak my case’ and that the whole process was ‘alien’ to him.

‘These are allegations that are false and I have had to come here to say my piece and to speak

the truth,’ he said. ‘That’s it. These are lies. These allegations against me are false.’

Mr Gordon noted that it was only later that day, following more questioning, that Mr McGregor asked gardaí: ‘Are you sure she did not have sex with anyone else?’

Later still, after having seen Garda photographs of Ms Hand’s bruises, and having heard portions of her complaint to the gardaí, Mr Gordon said Mr McGregor then told gardaí that James Lawrence had sex with Ms Hand after him.

‘Was it in your mind that he might be the patsy?’ Mr Gordon asked.

‘I’m not sure,’ Mr McGregor replied.

‘Was it in your mind that Mr Lawrence might take the fall for you?’ Mr Gordon pressed.

Mr McGregor answered: ‘Whoever can believe in something like this? How silly.’

He confirmed to the court that Mr Lawrence had gone to the same solicitors’ firm that he had gone to himself, and that he had paid Mr Lawrence’s legal fees.

‘I have got a staggering legal bill in disputing these lies,’ he observed.

However, he said he did not recall advising Mr Lawrence to use his firm of solicitors.

Mr Gordon suggested that Mr McGregor and Mr Lawrence had not, in January 2019, yet decided ‘how you were going to play this’.

Mr McGregor said: ‘There was no ‘play this’. I am going to speak my truth and put down on the record what happened over the evening.’

Later during the cross-examination, he confirmed he had asked his security guard to book the suite in the Beacon, at around 4.30am, while he was still partying in Krystle nightclub.

Mr Gordon put it to Mr McGregor there were women in his group when the booking was made, but they later decided to go home.

Counsel suggested the booking was made ‘with the intention of bringing girls back for sex’.

Mr McGregor said the booking was made ‘maybe for a party or afterparty, to have the opportunity, or also just to get myself rested and refreshed’.

He confirmed he contacted Ms Hand after the other women and friends had left.

Mr Gordon said: ‘I put it to you that you contacted her because she was to be the replacement for the girls that had left.’

Mr McGregor replied: ‘I was still partying away, as were they, and the invitation was to come to the salon for an afterparty. She wasn’t a replacement.’

The court heard Mr McGregor collected Ms Hand and her friend at 10.15am, and drove around, also picking up Mr Lawrence. They arrived at the Beacon Hotel at 12.15pm, 15 minutes after the room was ready for check-in.

After Mr McGregor finished giving his evidence, Mr Lawrence then took the stand.

He denied being the ‘patsy’ or ‘fall guy’, telling his own barrister, John Fitzgerald: ‘Never in a million years. What man would put himself up for the rape of a woman?’

He told the court that although he was initially not interested in Ms Hand, having had sex already three times with her friend, he did eventually have sex with her after she kept coming on to him.

He described it as ‘soft sex’, which they had both enjoyed, and said everybody was in good form. Although they had been drinking, everyone was in their ‘right minds’, he said.

He vehemently denied having taken cocaine himself, saying he never touched drugs as they had been bad for his family. He also said he never drank to excess.

Cross-examined by Mr Gordon, Mr Lawrence agreed he would never have been accused of rape if he had not told gardaí himself on January 18 that he had sex with Ms Hand twice in the hotel room, following her time with Mr McGregor.

Ms Hand, who had been drinking beers and Bacardi, and taking cocaine, has given evidence that she was unaware of having had sex with Mr Lawrence until she saw his Garda statement, and had thought he was looking after her.

‘You put yourself directly in the firing line?’ Mr Gordon asked.

‘Of course, it’s the truth,’ he replied.

He told the court he had been shocked by the Garda photographs of bruises on Ms Hand’s body, and said they were not there when he had sex with her.

‘I don’t know where she got the bruises from. She did not get them from me,’ he said.

Mr Gordon pressed: ‘You were telling us you were all in clear minds.

‘In fact, it would have been perfectly obvious to you that she had been beaten up.’

Mr Lawrence denied this. He said the door to the room in which Ms Hand and Mr McGregor were was open at all times, and that he could hear her enjoying sex with his friend.

Mr Gordon said Ms Hand’s body would have shown ‘all the hallmarks of a violent assault’.

Mr Lawrence repeated he did not know where the bruises in the photograph had come from, but said neither he nor Mr McGregor had caused them.

He said he came from a ‘family of women’, including six sisters.

‘I would not stand up for any man doing anything to any woman, and I would not do anything to any woman either.’

The case continues before Judge Owens and a jury of eight women and four men.