‘You Can’t Call Someone A Liar’

The judge in McGregor’s 2018 sexual assault civil case had harsh words for the Irish sports star as he ordered all copies of CCTV footage from the trial returned.

The judge from Conor McGregor’s civil sexual assault trial had some harsh words for the Irish sports star during a Thursday hearing in the High Court. He also ruled McGregor must turn over any copies of CCTV footage he has from the case.

In December, McGregor was found liable by a jury of assaulting Nikita Hand in Dublin’s Beacon Hotel in 2018. He’s been ordered to pay Hand €250,000 in damages plus legal costs — and now judge Alex Owens has ruled €100,000 in damages and €200,000 in costs must be paid to Hand now, with the rest due after an expected McGregor appeal.

But with McGregor appealing, the judge also wanted to make sure CCTV footage from the trial showing McGregor and Hand in the Beacon hotel doesn’t come out. The former UFC champion and his fiancé Dee Devlin have referred to the CCTV footage on multiple occasions, saying it proves McGregor didn’t rape Hand.

X – Conor McGregor

“He implied [Ms Hand] was a liar on a number of occasions,” Justice Owens said at Thursday’s hearing (via the Irish Examiner). “And the court conducted business as a kangaroo court. I’ve read it. I don’t want to give oxygen to that … You can’t give out the other side is a liar if you want another jury to hear it in perhaps a year’s time.”

“My position is Mr. McGregor, by winks and nudges, wants to get into the court of public opinion [and] selectively use bits and pieces of the case that suit himself for the purpose of that,” he concluded. “That’s what it’s all about. You’d never hope to get a fair retrial if that were allowed to happen. He’s not in a position to do that as the verdict will stand until such time as a superior court vacates the decision of the jury.”

McGregor’s lawyer Remy Farrell pushed back, saying “It cannot be the case that people are not entitled to express a view in respect of the outcome of a court case, and to disagree.”

“You can’t call someone a liar,” the judge responded. “That’s just not on. That’s implying someone has perjured themselves in court”

“The facts are clear,” the judge said at the hearing. “Nikita Hand sued Conor McGregor, a jury found McGregor raped Nikita Hand. That has been conclusively determined.”

It will be an interesting several months if the judge in this case really expects McGregor to stop declaring his innocence and sharing social media posts questioning the verdict. As it stands there are two such recent reposts on his X (formerly Twitter) account right now, one asking “Why would someone who claims to be a victim want evidence covered up?”

We assume McGregor’s lawyers would take issue if we were talking about photos of Hand’s bruised body being released.