A woman who alleges she was raped by MMA star Conor McGregor has denied that CCTV footage from the day in question “flatly contradicts” her account.
In an emotional morning of cross-examination, the woman’s version of events were questioned by McGregor’s counsel, Remy Farrell SC.
In CCTV footage played to the court, dated after the time of the alleged rape, McGregor is seen getting into a lift with the woman, his co-defendant James Lawrence, and the woman’s friend.
It appears to show the woman getting close to McGregor, in an act his lawyers say was a hug, and also appearing to kiss him on the arm.
The woman told the court that it was “very disturbing” for her to watch the footage. She said: “I’m very drunk, I’m stumbling. It’s not my character. I’m very vulnerable and I don’t want to have to look at it again.”
The court was obliged to take a short break before the footage was played as the woman broke down in tears.
In his cross examination, Mr Farrell said that according to her account, at the time of the CCTV footage: “You’re black and blue, you’ve been raped and nearly strangled… you’d feared for your life and you thought you’d never see your daughter again.”
The woman replied: “Yes. That’s what happened.”
Mr Farrell continued: “But you’d forgotten all that by the time you got into the lift, is that right?”
‘I know what happened’
The woman repeatedly claimed that she had no recollection of the events depicted on the CCTV. She said she was “confused” and that her “mind was gone”.
“The CCTV footage doesn’t take away from what happened to me in that room with Conor. I know what happened to me. I was brutally raped and battered,” she said.
The woman also told Mr Farrell that she had asked friends to delete text messages from the night in question. She said she had done so because: “I was afraid for my life.”
She also agreed with Mr Farrell that she had told repeated lies to her partner about where she was and who she had been with.
Under questioning, she responded: “It’s not a crime to tell your boyfriend a lie.”
The woman is suing McGregor and Mr Lawrence for assault in relation to an alleged rape at Dublin’s Beacon Hotel in December 2018.
It is a civil, not a criminal trial, after Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions previously decided not to prosecute the case.
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Both McGregor and Mr Lawrence claim they had consensual sex with the woman on the day in question, and deny any allegation of rape.
The woman’s cross examination will continue this afternoon, and the trial at Dublin’s High Court is expected to last another week.
