Conor McGregor loses rape appeal

On Thursday, Ireland time, three judges at the Irish Court of Appeal in Dublin dismissed the appeal on all five grounds brought by McGregor.

A civil trial in late 2024 found the UFC star had raped Nikita Hand in a Dublin hotel. She was awarded 250,000 euros ($443,000) and McGregor was liable for what was thought to be Ms Hand’s legal costs of 1.5 million euros ($2.6m).

Those costs of $3 million on McGregor are likely to have substantially risen due to the appeal.

Ms Hand accused the 37-year-old of “brutally raping and battering” her after a Christmas 2018 night out at the Beacon Hotel in the southern suburbs of Dublin.

The Irish fighter claimed he had consensual sex with Ms Hand.

When the verdict of rape was announced, McGregor and long-time partner Dee Devlin were seen in tears comforting each other, while Ms Hand was hugged by her legal team as she began crying.

As it was a civil case, McGregor did not receive a criminal conviction.

McGregor filed for an appeal on several grounds including that an interview he did with police he did at the time should not have been presented to the jury and that instructions to the jury were badly worded. However, the points were all rejected.