Content Warning: This article includes descriptions of sexual assault.
Closing arguments were heard in the civil assault trial against Conor McGregor on Tuesday, providing the jury with a final chance to hear about the case before deciding whether the former UFC star and a co-defendant committed rape on a hair colorist who was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine in 2018.
Lawyers representing the plaintiff, who POST Wrestling has decided not to name, along with representatives for McGregor and co-defendant James Lawrence gave their final courtroom remarks this week, per a live report from RTE and Paul Healy of the Irish Mirror
The plaintiff’s lead representative, John Gordon, spent his last minutes in court reminding the jury of the significant physical and mental harm his client has faced, linking the details to an alleged assault she suffered inside a penthouse in late 2018.
He recounted “a litany of evidence” provided over the past two weeks in court, including the numerous experts he called upon. Medical professionals in previous days of the trial described severe bruising on the plaintiff a day following her encounter with McGregor, with one saying they had never seen anyone that blemished before. The bruising emerged, the plaintiff claims, due to a violent encounter that saw her get choked before being sexually assaulted.
Other experts described how the plaintiff had gone from a full-time hairdresser to a PTSD victim who became unfit for work.
“So let’s put it this way – somebody did it,” Gordon said. “It happened in the Beacon Hotel. It was Mr McGregor … As I said opening the case she’s [the plaintiff] no angel. She was out for a good time and indeed up to [a] certain point she had a great time. But things went badly wrong.”
Gordon also lashed out at McGregor’s explanation last week that bruising on the plaintiff could have been from another injury, like diving into a bathtub. “Thank goodness you have the common sense to realize you are being sold a pup by this arrogant man,” he told the jury.
While the plaintiff’s legal team looked at the material damages in the case, McGregor’s side spent their final day focusing on the series of inconsistencies they found in the plaintiff’s story.
Remy Farrell, McGregor’s lead attorney, returned to many parts of the case he honed in on earlier this month: CCTV footage which he claims doesn’t show the plaintiff in distress or discomfort following the alleged assault, lies the plaintiff told her boyfriend at the time via text around the incident, and how certain recountings of the situation didn’t line up with other times she explained the scenario.
“The reason I put all that to you is [the] entirety of the approach of the plaintiff is it’s all very simple: She was raped, has the bruises to prove it and everything else is just a distraction,” he said.
Farrell also cast doubt on the plaintiff’s shoddy memory of the night, emphasizing how frequently she was unable to remember certain details.
“She says there are just certain things I remember and certain things gone out of my brain … That is an understatement … As if someone has surgically excised some bits and not other bits.”
The lawyer for Lawrence, McGregor’s co-defendant, argued that his client had consensual sex with the plaintiff, leaning on CCTV footage of the two in a hotel lobby to counter the claim of her being “a very vulnerable woman.”
It is unclear when a verdict will be delivered for the case.
