Anger grows over failure of Irish authorized chief to take a felony case towards Conor McGregor – after girl gained a civil rape case towards MMA star

Natasha O’Brien stood in solidarity with Nikita Hand at a protest in Dublin yesterday evening, saying, ‘I know what it’s like’.

Ms O’Brien gave a speech outside City Hall as people gathered to protest the failure of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to take a criminal case against Conor McGregor.

Ms Hand won her civil claim for damages for sexual assault against the MMA star on Friday. She was not present at the march but watched the entire thing via livestream as she needed time to recover, organisers said.

Ms O’Brien told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘I’m here today to stand with Nikita in solidarity for the harrowing trial that she had to fight through with every piece of her.’

Two years ago, the 24-year-old was punched until she blacked out by 22-year-old soldier Cathal Crotty after she asked him to stop shouting homophobic abuse in the street. He gloated about it on social media afterwards.

He was given a three-year suspended sentence earlier this year, avoiding prison. Ms O’Brien has since became a national figure for activism on violence against women.

She said: ‘I was recently a victim of the system because let’s not even talk about being the victim of the crimes that we suffered.

‘I was a victim of the system and Nikita was a victim of the system and I’m here today because the system is creating more victims, it is compounding the traumas of victims and adding more suffering to the suffering that they are already going through.’

Natasha O’Brien at a protest in support of Nikita Hand outside City Hall. Two years ago, the 24-year-old was punched until she blacked out by 22-year-old soldier Cathal Crotty

Women at a protest outside City Hall to the DPP office over the handling of the Nikita Hand/ Conor McGregor case

March organisers ROSA Socialist Feminist Movement had already planned the protest to coincide with yesterday’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

She added: ‘It is just so important for me to stand up here in solidarity with Nikita and give her my whole support because I know what it’s like.

‘I know what it’s like to feel abandoned, I know what it’s like to feel voiceless and I know what it’s like to get up there and try to have your voice heard and Nikita has literally shown the whole world that no matter who you are, no matter what somebody has done to you and who they are, that you still have a voice.

‘No matter who ignores you, you still have a voice. And you just have to keep fighting because there are always people in your corner and there are always people that are going to support you and lift you up and that’s why I’m here.’

March organisers ROSA Socialist Feminist Movement had already planned the protest to coincide with yesterday’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

But Ms Hand’s victory against McGregor last Friday changed the focus of the march.

The office of the DPP told Ms Hand in 2020 it would not prosecute a criminal case against McGregor or his co-accused James Lawrence because it felt there was not enough evidence.

Protesters marched from City Hall to the office of the DPP, shouting chants like, ‘We don’t care about your fame when you lie and victim blame’ and, ‘Stand with Nikita’.

Rose of Tralee’s 2024 Kerry Rose Emer Dineen and Cavan Rose Grace Farrelly also came to show support.

Protesters marched from City Hall to the office of the DPP, shouting chants like, ‘We don’t care about your fame when you lie and victim blame’ and, ‘Stand with Nikita’

Nikita Hand has been awarded nearly €250,000 (£210,000) in damages after a jury at Dublin’s High Court found Mr McGregor assaulted her in a Dublin hotel in 2018

Ms Dineen told the Mail: ‘Everybody in Ireland has a different story, every woman, and so it’s so important that we show up and we say that we stand with them.’

Ms Farrelly echoed this, saying to the Mail: ‘Every woman in Ireland is able to tell you a time they were either verbally, sexually or physically harassed or assaulted. I think it’s too normalised in our society and there’s not a whole lot done about it.’

‘I just think it’s scary. When I go out on a night out there’s so many precautions I have to take compared to my two brothers.’

Protesters’ banners referenced the words of Gisèle Pelicot, reading, ‘Shame must change sides’. Ms Pelicot is the survivor of mass rape attacks organised by her husband who is currently on trial in France.

Ruth Coppinger – co-founder of organisers the ROSA Socialist Feminist Movement who is standing as a Solidarity party candidate in Dublin West – told the Mail of Ms Hand having to take a civil case against McGregor: ‘She shouldn’t have had to do that.’

It was ‘inexplicable’, she said, that the DPP thought there was not enough evidence ‘when somebody had clearly had so many injuries, physical injuries’ and there ‘seemed to be quite a lot of evidence of not consenting’.

Ms Coppinger said ‘this case has actually blown up so many issues that need to be addressed’ – and ‘we need answers’, adding this is not the first DPP decision of its kind when it comes to survivors’ cases.