Nikita Hand’s lawyers are looking to prevent security camera footage from the Beacon hotel from being leaked to the public, one month after a jury found McGregor liable for assaulting her in 2018.
While Conor McGregor has lost the civil suit filed against him by Nikita Hand for sexual assault, the case continues to be active. Not only is a judge set to rule on whether McGregor is in contempt for calling the trial a “kangaroo court,” Hand’s attorneys are now filing an injunction to keep CCTV footage from the case from being leaked to the public.
A new article from the Irish Mirror reports that Hand’s lawyers have served McGregor with a notice of injunction to “prevent dissemination, circulation or publication of CCTV footage shown at the trial.” According to them, McGregor’s Forged Irish Stout distributor in Italy has said there will be “imminent” publication of footage from the Beacon hotel where a jury found McGregor liable of assaulting Hand.
Hand’s lawyer said he believes publishing the CCTV footage would be contempt of court, and the “only purpose” would be to “undermine and discredit the verdict of the court and, in so doing, gain financially.” The court will rule on the injunction Thursday (Jan. 16th, 2025).
While few outside of the courtroom have actually seen the security camera footage in question, the contents of the video were widely discussed during the civil trial. A quirk in Irish law prevents the press from describing the video contents themselves, but not from reporting what lawyers and witnesses said about them.
McGregor’s lawyers relied very heavily on the CCTV footage as evidence they say disproved Hand’s allegation of rape against the Irish sports star. During the trial, they said footage from after Hand testified the assault occurred showed her riding the elevator down to the parking garage with McGregor. McGregor’s lawyer describes Hand hugging and kissing McGregor.
Hand has said she was so intoxicated that she had no recollection of anything that happened during that period of CCTV footage. She testified that it was only after McGregor left and she was back in the hotel room that she began to realize she had been raped.
Hand filed civil charges against McGregor after Dublin prosecutors refused to bring the case in criminal court. The CCTV footage undoubtedly played a big part in that decision, and now it sounds like associates of McGregor are hoping that footage emerges to repair the reputation of the former UFC double champion.
For his part, McGregor denies raping Hand and says their sexual encounter was consensual. He has stated he plans on appealing the civil jury’s judgement and order to pay €250,000 in damages and an undisclosed amount of legal fees.