Examining The Jury’s Verdict Against Conor McGregor

A jury found Conor McGregor guilty in a civil court case brought by Nikita Hand over a 2018 incident at a Dublin hotel. We explain what the charge was and which damages were awarded.

There’s been a lot of confusion surrounding the guilty verdict rendered against Conor McGregor in Dublin on Friday (Nov. 22nd, 2024), and a lot of it has to do with the specifics of how the Irish civil court works. Let’s break down some of the biggest questions surrounding the trial: what the jury found McGregor guilty of, and how they came to the figure of nearly €250,000 (roughly $260,000 U.S.) being award McGregor’s accuser Nikita Hand.

First off, to be clear: this was not a criminal case. While Gardai and the Director of Public Prosecutions did a full investigation into the December 2018 incident after it occurred, they determined there was insufficient evidence to secure a conviction in criminal court. That led Hand to seek recourse in civil court, where a two week trial ended with McGregor being found guilty. But of what exactly?

The Irish Times spoke with Newstalk court correspondent Frank Greaney, who broke down the verdict.

“When the jury began their deliberations on Thursday afternoon, they weren’t asked to consider any allegation of criminal wrongdoing against either Conor McGregor or the second named defendant, his friend James Lawrence,” Greaney explained. “They were essentially being asked if either man had assaulted her. And if so, and only if so, they were then asked to assess damages.”

“So it is essentially the civil tort of assault or battery that was what the jury was was asked to consider.”

“But clearly, through the evidence, and the judge said this to the jury: the essence of the allegation was of a sexual nature,” Greaney added. “It was an allegation of of rape. And Nikita Hand did give some harrowing, very distressing details of how Conor McGregor had pinned her down on a bed in the penthouse suite of the Beacon Hotel back in December of 2018 and raped her.”

Shortly after being declared guilty, McGregor took to X (formerly Twitter) in a poorly worded attempt to clarify that the verdict was “was for assault” and not rape. He also noted the “modest award given” to Hand did not include “aggravated or exemplary damages.”

“In relation to damages, the jurors were told that if they found that Mr. McGregor had assaulted Nikita Hand, they would then have to go on and assess and award damages,” Greaney explained. “There are different categories of damages that they were told about: there are general damages, there are special damages, there are aggravated damages, and there are punitive damages.”

According to Irish Legal Guide, general damages are those which follow naturally from the tort / civil wrong. Special damages are quantifiable out of pocket monetary expenses and loss of earnings arising before trial. Aggravated damages may be awarded as additional compensation where injury has been caused or exacerbated by the conduct of the defendant. Punitive damages are intended to mark the court’s disapproval of the defendant’s conduct in the circumstances.

“They actually only decided to award her damages in relation to two of those four categories: general and special,” Greaney said. “There was no compensation given for aggravated or punitive. We don’t know the reasoning behind that. We know the figure. We know that for things like medical bills, loss of earnings, you know, psychiatrist bills, and and things like that, she was awarded just under a quarter of a million euros.”

“They would also have had the option to award her damages to punish Mr. McGregor for what he did, to send out a message that this type of behavior isn’t acceptable in this society. Particularly when it comes to rape, the judge told them that they’re entitled to make that conclusion. But for whatever reason — again, we don’t know why — they didn’t award damages in those particular categories.”

McGregor will be made to pay €250,000 in damages, and will return to court next week where it will be decided if he must pay for the €1,000,000+ in court costs and legal fees. The Irish sports star has vowed to appeal.

“We heard at the beginning that she was looking for an awful lot more than that or at least she was suing for an awful lot more than that,” Greaney commented. “€750,000 was mentioned for rehousing, and also there was a claim for €1,000,000 in loss of earnings. A quarter of a million euro is a lot of money, but it’s clearly a long way away from from what she was was suing Conor McGregor for.”

The jury never got to hear Hand’s reasoning for rehousing: a June 2024 home invasion where masked assailants entered her home at night and stabbed her partner. Hand’s lawyers argued that they were not suggesting McGregor was directly responsible but did lay the blame at ‘supporters of Mr. McGregor.’ The judge ruled the incident ‘completely irrelevant’ to the case at hand and blocked it from being brought up during the trial.