A friend of mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor has denied that he was being a "fall guy" for the rape allegation against Mr McGregor.
James Lawrence was giving evidence in the civil action taken against him and Mr McGregor by 35-year-old Nikita Hand who says she was raped by them in a Dublin hotel room in December 2018.
Both men deny the allegations.
Conor McGregor denied that he had it in his mind that Mr Lawrence might be the "patsy", when he told gardaí that he had not caused Ms Hand's bruises and suggested she might have had sex with someone else.
Mr Lawrence told his Senior Counsel he did not know what a patsy was. Asked if he was being a fall guy for Mr McGregor - he said "not in a million years" and asked why he would put himself up for the rape of a woman.
Mr Lawrence told the court he had known Mr McGregor since they were children but became better friends as they got older. He said he would go out with him - although not all the time.
He described going out with Mr McGregor on the night of 8 December 2018, to District 8, a small club in town and to Krystle nightclub before getting home at around 6.30am or 7am.
He said he was not a heavy drinker and would only have had a few vodkas and Lucozade. He said he did not take cocaine ever in his life.
Mr Lawrence said he went home to his mother’s house and went to bed. He said he was woken a few hours later, by Mr McGregor who wanted to use his toilet and wanted him to come out. He said he did not want to, but eventually agreed when he saw Mr McGregor had girls in the car.
He said he joined Mr McGregor, Nikita Hand and her friend Danielle Kealy in the car and described everyone as having a laugh and having fun. They decided to go to the Beacon Hotel where Mr McGregor had a room booked. He said Mr McGregor and Ms Hand were flirtatious in the car and in the hotel, coming on to each other.
Mr Lawrence said Mr McGregor went into the bedroom and Ms Hand followed him in. He said he could hear them having sex and could hear Ms Hand moaning. Mr Lawrence said Ms Kealy told him Ms hand was going to regret it because she had just bought a house with her boyfriend.
He told the court they were old enough and bold enough to do what they wanted. He described Ms Hand as "hopping in and out" of the other room, getting herself drinks and having a laugh with Ms Kealy.
Mr Lawrence told the court he asked Mr McGregor's security guard to go out and get condoms and he and Ms Kealy had sex three times. He said he also saw Mr McGregor having sex with Ms Hand again.
He said Mr McGregor eventually said he wanted to go, but Ms Hand wanted to stay on. He said no one appeared distressed or upset.
After Mr McGregor left he said Ms Hand became flirtatious with him and he rejected her 14 or 15 times. Eventually they were in the car with the driver, and he said Ms Hand put his hand on her leg and was asking him to take her out. He said he felt "peer pressure" in front of another man. He said he felt belittled and decided to go back to the hotel.
Back at the hotel, he said they had sex then ordered food and had sex again. He said Ms Hand became upset after the second time they had sex. He told the court she looked at a small bruise on her leg or her arm and asked what would she tell her boyfriend.
Mr Lawrence described it as a small bruise - nothing like the extent of the bruising visible in pictures of Ms Hand the next morning. He said he would not stand up for any man who would do something to a woman like that. But he said she was fine again instantly.
Under cross examination by Senior Counsel John Gordon for Ms Hand, Mr Lawrence said he did not know where Ms Hand had got the bruises from. He said when he had sex with her, she had none of the bruises.
Questioned again, he said he was there, "I’m after telling you, I didn’t put any bruises on her," he told Mr Gordon. "I didn’t cause any bruises, or any harm to the girl."
He became animated as he told Mr Gordon, if Ms Hand had been beaten up or choked, he and Ms Kealy would have heard. He said they were not deaf. "We didn’t hear nothing but moaning and sex," he told the court.
Put to him that the only place she could have got the bruising was from Mr McGregor and that the bruising had all the hallmarks of a violent assault, Mr Lawrence said she did not get them from him and did not get them from Conor. He said the bruising did not mean she got a bad beating. He said neither he nor Mr Gordon were experts on bruises and neither of them knew where they came from.
Mr Lawrence also told the court he had never taken cocaine. He said Mr McGregor already had cocaine on him when he came to his house and evidence from Ms Hand that Mr McGregor had emerged from his house with a bag of cocaine was a lie.
Mr Gordon put it to him that he had put himself directly in the firing line in this case by going to the gardaí and telling them he had sex with Ms Hand. Mr Lawrence said it was the truth.
Earlier, Mr McGregor was quizzed about garda interviews in January 2019 and agreed it was after he was shown photographs of Ms Hand’s bruising that he made a further statement to gardaí and suggested she may have had sex with someone else. He also told them that he believed Ms Hand had sex with Mr Lawrence.
Mr Gordon put it to him that when he spoke to gardaí, he and Mr Lawrence had not yet decided how they were going to "play this". Mr McGregor said there was no playing this, he was going to speak his truth.
He denied that it was in his mind that Mr Lawrence might be the "patsy" or would take the fall for him.
He said he did not advise Mr Lawrence to go to a solicitor but he agreed that Mr Lawrence had gone to Mr McGregor’s firm of solicitors and that he had paid his fees.
Mr McGregor also told the court Ms Hand had sex with "multiple people", "multiple times" through that "three day bender".
Asked to clarify if he was suggesting she had sex with someone else beyond himself and Mr Lawrence, Mr McGregor said he did not know.
Mr McGregor told Mr Gordon that he answered no comment to more than 100 questions asked by gardaí investigating the rape because he was "beyond petrified".
He agreed that he had gone to Dundrum Garda Station on 17 January 2019 with his solicitor by appointment and he had given them a two-page handwritten statement.
After he had read that statement, he agreed that gardaí asked him more than 100 questions. Senior Counsel John Gordon put it to him that in answer to every question he had said "no comment".
Mr McGregor said it was the first time anything like this had happened to him. He was "beyond petrified" and went to his lawyer’s office to give them his "series of events" and took their advice from then on.
He said he would have loved to go to the top of the mountains and shout from the hilltops but he said because of the seriousness of the allegation and how afraid he was, he went to his lawyers and took their advice.
'So nervous'
He said it was out of his hands. He was "so nervous" and it was alien to him as it was the first time anything like that had happened to him in his life.
He said that was why he was in court to speak his case and say his truth. He said the allegations against him were false.
Mr Gordon put it to him that he had refused to answer innocuous questions such as whether Ms Hand was from the same area as him. He said he was going by the advice of his lawyers in a state of shock and fear.
Mr Justice Owens pointed out to the jury that everyone was entitled to exercise their right to silence and they could not draw an adverse inference in relation to that although he said it may be relevant to another issue.
Mr McGregor also agreed that it was in his evidence in court on Wednesday that he had suggested for the first time that Ms Hand’s bruises may have been caused by "swan diving" into the bath in the hotel or by "knocking about" during the days she was out.
He agreed this was not put by his lawyers to Ms Hand and said this was the first time he had the opportunity to say his piece publicly.
Mr Gordon put it to him that his evidence on Wednesday was the first time he had claimed Ms Hand was not wearing a tampon when he had sex with her. Mr McGregor agreed this was not put to her in court either. He said he would have been saying it from the outset.
Mr Gordon reminded Mr McGregor that a doctor had given evidence about having to remove the tampon with a forceps, as it was so far up Ms Hand’s vagina.
Mr McGregor said it was broad daylight, he was there and he would not have had sex with Ms Hand if she had a tampon in or was on her period. Asked if he thought it was a very significant feature in the case, he said he did not know. Asked how he believed the tampon had got there he said, "not from me, not with me".
The court also heard from Mr McGregor’s personal photographer, David Fogarty who took photographs of Mr McGregor on 13 December 2018 which will be shown to the jury.
The jury also heard evidence from a security guard who worked for Mr McGregor who described regularly checking on the hotel room where he and Mr Lawrence were with Ms Hand and Ms Kealy. He said he did not see any signs of distress from anyone and no one seemed to be under the influence of alcohol.
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