Content warning: This article includes graphic details of physical and sexual assault.
UFC star Conor McGregor took the stand on Wednesday, speaking for the first time since a civil suit that sees him face sexual assault allegations started last week.
McGregor denied the allegations brought against him in an appearance at Dublin’s High Court court this week, claiming that his time with the plaintiff, who POST Wrestling has decided to not mention by name, was entirely consensual. The court proceedings have been reported by The Irish Mirror since the trial first started last week.
The Irish MMA fighter mentioned many details that lined up with the alleged victim’s story: They came in contact on an evening in December 2018 after the plaintiff was leaving a work Christmas party. Along with co-defendant James Lawrence and a friend of the plaintiff, they went to a hotel penthouse shortly after meeting.
However, McGregor’s story split from his accuser after that point. He told his side of the story, and claimed the plaintiff had told “lies and more lies.”
He claimed that the plaintiff was “enthusiastic” throughout their time together. He mentioned that the bruising she reported to a hospital the next day, which one expert said was more bruises than they had ever seen on someone, wasn’t because of him. “[It] possibly came from her diving into the bath,” he reportedly said.
And McGregor claimed that the plaintiff neither was menstruating nor wearing a tampon, saying he “would not have had sex” if that was the case. The alleged victim claimed that she was menstruating the evening she was out with McGregor, and had to get a tampon removed from her while at the hospital the next day.
The claims from McGregor on Wednesday ran up against many details outlined by the plaintiff in the first week of the trial, where she recalled being raped by McGregor, causing severe physical and mental damage that affected her to this day.
Many expert witnesses have spoken about the ways in which the plaintiff has suffered since the alleged incident.
On Tuesday, Dublin Fire Brigade paramedics Neil Dempsey and Eithne Scully spoke about their experience with the plaintiff less than a full day after the alleged incident.
Dempsey recalled seeing “visible marks in and around her throat,” and recalled being told by the plaintiff that she had been sexually assaulted. At the time, a worry was that a tampon remained wedged inside her and had to be removed.
Later in the day in court, a pair of medical experts who have dealt with the plaintiff over a longer timeframe, family doctor Dr. Frank Clarke and psychiatrist Dr. Ann Leader, both spoke about the mental struggles the plaintiff has felt in recent years.
Dr. Clarke and Dr. Leader both discussed the plaintiff being diagnosed with PTSD from the alleged event.
“She felt she had been permanently damaged by what had happened,” explained Dr. Leader, who has deep experience in dealing with victims of sexual assault. “She told me she wanted to die. She felt dirty, ashamed and guilty.”
Dr. Clarke reiterated the plaintiff’s struggles to work following the alleged incident. It had previously been mentioned in the case that the plaintiff left her hair colorist job in the months that followed and has struggled to maintain a job since. She was deemed “unfit to work” by a doctor earlier this year.
“I know she did try to go back [to being a hair colorist] but it didn’t work out,” Dr. Clarke said. “Social media was active, she could overhear conversations in salon. She was being triggered too easily.”
Remy Farrell, the leader lawyer for McGregor, attempted to prod the PTSD diagnosis by arguing that doctors can only go off the evidence patients give them, which could in some cases be false. He also quizzed Dr. Clarke on the plaintiff’s history with anxiety and panic attacks which dated back to before the alleged incident.
While Dr. Clarke described the plaintiff as having a history of anxiety issues, he made a distinction from what she had dealt with in recent years: “Totally different thing to PTSD now,” he told Farrell.
The series of experts appearing Tuesday came after a tense opening week of the trial, with most days seeing the plaintiff speak first hand about her meeting with McGregor.
She defended against claims that the incident with McGregor was “pleasurable sex” instead of rape. The defendants attempted to break down her story with CCTV footage and argued that she was an “enthusiastic participant” throughout.
Lawyer Farrell also pressed the plaintiff on text conversations with her boyfriend at the time, who was misled about what her evening plans were. The plaintiff argued that she didn’t want to alarm her partner that she was out partying with McGregor, and after the alleged assault happened, she said her “mind wasn’t perfect at the time.” Farrell claimed it was “part of a web of lies” she had constructed.
Early last week, the plaintiff told a harrowing story of how she was significantly bruised and forced to have sex with McGregor while under the influence of cocaine and alcohol. She described struggling to talk about the incident, and feeling frustrated after the Irish national police decided not to pursue a federal case against the MMA star.
While it remains unclear how many more witnesses are left in the trial, the court previously stated that the case should wrap up by the end of this week.
