‘Kept thinking I was going to die’

A woman accused UFC superstar Conor McGregor of strangling her before raping her inside an Irish hotel in 2018 during a civil trial against the controversial fighter on Wednesday.

Nikita Hand testified in Dublin’s High Court that she thought she was going to die when the Irish fighter allegedly threw her on a bed and strangled her three times during the attack in a Dublin penthouse. British outlets reported,

The former hairdresser who filed a civil sexual assault suit told jurors she bit a mixed martial arts fighter while trying to stop her.

“I was trying to fight as hard as I could. According to British outlets, he put his arm around my neck and strangled me three times, who was visibly shaken and asked for breaks several times to collect himself.

“I just blacked out and I couldn’t move or breathe and I kept looking at the bedpost and thinking about my daughter. I just kept thinking that I would die and would never be able to see my daughter again.”

Hand testified that she convinced her alleged abuser that she would not speak about what happened so that he would not hurt her again, saying that the mixed martial arts star compared her strangulation to taping in the Octagon. From my own experience, BBC reported,

The mother of one is seeking financial damages against McGregor and another man, James Lawrence, who she alleges sexually assaulted her on December 9, 2018.

A spokesperson for McGregor previously denied the allegations, saying that Irish police had investigated the alleged assault and declined to lay criminal charges in 2020. According to AP News,

McGregor’s lawyers argued that the sex was consensual and that she was trying to extort money from him, the BBC reported.

Hand, who filed her civil suit in 2021, told the court she was “disappointed and troubled” that Irish police failed to prosecute both men, complaining she was treated unfairly because of their alleged exploitation. The doer was a celebrity.

Hand’s lawyer Josh Gordon said he and McGregor were familiar with each other because the pair grew up in the same area, they had talked on social media and mutual friends before meeting at the Beacon Hotel on the night of the alleged incident. Had shared.

Hand told jurors the alleged attack left her with bruises on her hands and wrists, bloody bruising on her chest and tenderness in her neck, and also said she was unable to work, citing mental health problems. Unable to do.

Dublin-born McGregor, one of the world’s highest-paid sports stars, has been involved in a series of police cases over the years.

In 2019, a Dublin court fined him punching an old man In a Dublin pub, a moment that resulted in a viral video,

He settled another case in 2019 regarding the allegations The phone of the person who was making the video was snatched and broken Him outside a hotel in Miami. After this, he was saved from going to jail in 2018 he threw a metal hand truck On a bus outside Barclays Center in Brooklyn after a press conference.

The civil case is expected to continue for the next two weeks.