Judge in Nikita Hand’s civil case against Conor McGregor gives masterclass with consent – The Irish Times

Remy Farrell SC, a barrister who uses precise and sometimes vivid language, chose a potentially unfortunate phrase to describe his client. Conor McGregor In Nikita Hand’s final brief to the jury in her damages lawsuit against mixed martial arts fighter.

He told them that saying McGregor had a “strong personality” might be a euphemism.

That wasn’t his intention at all, but the strong word conjured up images he might prefer to avoid. Footage of Nikita Hand fully clothed and forcibly pinned to the bed by McGregor. Or, as McGregor sneers, Nikita Hand chokes out, “Now you know how I feel in the Octagon.” Or Nikita Hand was “curled up tightly” in the ambulance, “very upset and distressed,” as the advanced paramedic who treated him put it, for the effects of McGregor’s strong personality. Nikita Hand in the sexual assault unit in the Rotunda is having a tampon removed from deep inside her vagina with forceps by a man with a strong personality. Nikita Hand was deleting messages from her phone and was hesitant to tell her then-boyfriend who did this to her for fear of how someone with McGregor’s strong personality would react.

Nikita Hand heard in court as McGregor tried to portray her as someone “full of lies” who “had sexual intercourse with multiple people on multiple occasions”. Hand only took up the assault damages claim against McGregor, arising from the rape allegation, after the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute McGregor. But he was portrayed as a “gold digger and fraudster”, as his barrister John Gordon SC put it.

( ‘I know what was in that room’: The full story of Conor McGregor caseOpens in new window )

Supreme Court The jury awarded him €248,603 in damages. It turned out that McGregor was not attacked by his friend James Lawrence, for whom he sought compensation. Lawrence had told Gardaí that he had consensual sex with her, but Gardaí said he had no memory of what happened between them and believed it was a “made-up story”.

McGregor has already said he intends to appeal.

“Strong” was not the only word that jarred in several days of often sensational, harrowing statements. At times, there was a disconcerting sense that the two sides were not only presenting completely opposing narratives but speaking entirely different languages.

In his testimony, McGregor tossed around words like “party” and “joy” that had nothing to do with their normal meanings. It turns out that “partying” means wandering around Dublin with a pre-booked hotel suite for sex, desperate to find someone he can live with. He seemed to do everything for a woman – or “lovely lady” – to show “joy” and “enthusiasm”, including physically fighting her. He painted a picture of a world shaped by porn tropes: a world where sex was a chip he could cash in whenever he wanted, a world where women were interchangeable commodities and other men were ciphers who made up numbers and testified. what she describes as her “athletic” gender.

Krystle began messaging Hand on Instagram when the young women she was partying with at the nightclub made the wise decision to go home. After meeting up with her and another woman, the three searched James Lawrence’s home in Drimnagh. “I had two daughters, two boisterous women full of energy, and I needed to balance that and turn it into a party.” Initially, Lawrence had no intention of joining in – he wanted to stay home and relax, he had a girlfriend, he wasn’t even wearing shoes – but some words changed and soon he was in McGregor’s big car with tinted windows. , being whisked away towards the Beacon hotel.

The events that unfolded next were rehearsed ad nauseam in court—sometimes literally—for 12 days. There is no need to state these again here. They drank and “partyed” and at one point, when he tried to take things further, Hand stopped acquiescing. McGregor did not stop.

The jury had to navigate a gray area between consent and lack of consent due to conflicting testimony and confusing testimony. The words of the judge, Mr Justice Alexander Owens, as he guided them through the assignment should be printed out and hung in nightclubs and secondary school toilets. They’re a masterclass on consent, and as useful a primer on rape myths as anything I’ve ever read.

Surrender does not mean consent; He said it was not necessary to prove that a person resisted, tried to escape or was alarmed. “You have to be careful about what you think a victim of sexual assault should do. This does not mean that they will complain to the relevant person about what happened; “They may react to this event in ways that may seem irrational.”

Posting photos on Instagram “is not an invitation to sexual harassment.” Just because a woman engages in risky activities like drinking or using drugs “doesn’t mean they’re ready for sex.”

Hand won the civil suit, but his lawyer was wrong about one thing. In summary, she said she “will always be a stigmatized woman for opposing Conor McGregor.” I disagree. Like Gisèle Pelicot, like Hazel Behan, like Lavinia KerwickHand joins an army of women who are putting shame back where it belongs. He will not be marked by this in the eyes of the public; She will be remembered as a courageous woman who refused to give up and – when she felt let down by the justice system – pursued her case in the courts of law, at incalculable risks and harm to herself. After all, it wasn’t Conor McGregor who showed the world what it means to be a warrior. It was Nikita Hand.