A recording of Nikita Hand talking to her then partner just hours after she claimed she was violently raped by Conor McGregor is at odds with bombshell claims in new evidence that she was physically beaten by her ex.
On Friday, it emerged that former neighbours of the mother-of-one claim to have witnessed her being punched and kicked by her then-boyfriend, Stephen Redmond, on the same evening she said she was attacked by the former MMA fighter at a Dublin hotel.
However, a recording from the night of the attack played during the original civil trial instead appears to show a man concerned by his girlfriend’s distress.
Evidence from a friend of Ms. Hand during the original trial also appears to contradict the new affidavits outlined by the Court of Appeal on Friday.
The salon worker’s manager, Emer Brennan, told the court she saw her friend in a distressed state with bruising to her arm after she left the hotel and, crucially, before she arrived home to the house she shared with Mr. Redmond.
Former neighbours Samantha O’Reilly and Steven Cummins have sworn affidavits that McGregor is seeking to introduce in his appeal as new evidence, casting doubt over Ms. Hand’s version of events. A key part of Ms. Hand’s successful civil case against the multi-millionaire fighter is that he caused extensive bruising to her body. Ms. Hand alleged he raped her in a penthouse at the Beacon Hotel on the afternoon of Sunday, December 9, 2018, but he was found liable for assault.
The neighbours’ affidavits outlined in the Court of Appeal on Friday by Judge Séamus Noonan suggest Ms. Hand was assaulted in a bedroom of her home by her then partner, in a row that they had seen from across the road.
However, a harrowing recording of her 2 am conversation with Mr. Redmond played to the High Court during Ms. Hand’s civil case against McGregor appears to show a man concerned for his partner’s wellbeing.
During the recording, Mr. Redmond is also heard telling his former partner to report the allegations to the gardaí before she forgets the details.
In the recording played in court, he is heard telling Ms. Hand: "This isn’t a shut up and say nothing situation. This s*** doesn’t happen anymore. This thing about keeping quiet about stuff is not f***ing happening."
He also expressed his concern for the "other girls" she told him she was with.
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Ms. Hand, a 35-year-old hair colourist from Drimnagh, had accused McGregor of raping her in the penthouse suite of a hotel in Dublin, when she was drunk and after taking cocaine. He denied the allegation and claimed the sex in December 2018, the day after the hair colourist’s Christmas party, was consensual.
During Ms. Hand’s cross-examination, McGregor’s barrister, Remy Farrell, said he was going to play an audio recording made by her then partner, Stephen Redmond, after Ms. Hand returned home.
In the recording, Ms. Hand could be heard sobbing and in a highly distressed state, telling her boyfriend she had been raped.
She also wept in the witness box as the tape was played to the court, holding her head in her hands and screening her face with her hair.
On the audio, in a muffled voice, she was heard to say: "I told him no. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry."
Her partner replied: "Just tell me what happened. Tell me."
Ms. Hand is heard responding: "In the Morgan… in the Penthouse. He choked me. I can’t tell you who it was yet." The court heard she believed she was at The Morgan Hotel in Temple Bar, when she was actually in The Beacon Hotel in Sandyford.
She is heard telling Mr. Redmond: "I can’t tell you who it was. "He’ll f***ing kill me."
Mr. Redmond responded: "Nikita, you’re going to have to."
"I can’t,’ she said. "He told me he’d kill me."
Mr. Redmond then asked Ms. Hand to "look at me for a second," adding: "I’m not giving out."
Ms. Hand told him she had been to Ms. Brennan’s house before coming home. She said she told her manager and friend who raped her and that Ms. Brennan had taken photos of her body.
Mr. Redmond is heard trying to reassure his then-partner, telling her "nothing is going to happen" and that he intended to "call the guards."
Despite Ms. Hand’s appeals for him not to contact gardaí, he tells her: "This isn’t a shut up and say nothing situation. This s*** doesn’t happen anymore. This thing about keeping quiet about stuff is not f***ing happening.
"Listen to me for a second. You’re going to fall asleep, you’re going to wake up and you’re only going to remember half of what you did and that’s a big f***ing problem.
"You’re obviously very drunk, please tell me what happened. I’m begging you, I’m your fella."
Ms. Hand is heard saying back: "Look at my knuckles from fighting back. He was choking me and I couldn’t breathe. He choked me three times.
"Just be there for me. Who cares who it was? It doesn’t matter. He still hurt me."
She told him: "I’m after being f***ing sexually abused… I’m after being raped and all you care about is you.
"Putting your arms around me and asking me am I okay is what you should be doing."
But Mr. Redmond told her: "We need to do something about this, this is not being kept a secret."
Ms. Brennan’s evidence during the original trial also appears to contradict the new affidavits.
The manager of the hair salon where Ms. Hand worked said Ms. Hand had sent her a text saying: "I’m black and blue, how will I explain this to Ste?"
*Additional reporting by Helen Bruce. This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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