Conor McGregor's friend, James Lawrence, who was sued alongside him by Nikita Hand for rape, has begun legal proceedings against Ms Hand for what his lawyers are describing as an "abuse of process".
The jury in the civil proceedings at the High Court found that Mr Lawrence had not raped Ms Hand in the Beacon Hotel in December 2018.
He had claimed he had consensual sex with her, after Mr McGregor had left.
However, the High Court and the Court of Appeal both refused to award him his costs. The Appeal Court ruled that Mr Lawrence’s evidence that he saw consensual sex between Ms Hand and Conor McGregor must have been rejected by the jury, which found Mr McGregor raped Ms Hand.
The Appeal court found aspects of Mr Lawrence’s evidence were fundamentally at odds with the jury’s verdict in relation to Mr McGregor and could only be regarded as "untruthful". It described the giving of such evidence as a very serious matter.
The Appeal Court also ruled that it would not award Mr Lawrence his costs because Mr McGregor had paid his legal fees.
Any award of costs to Mr Lawrence would either mean he would have received a bounty of several hundred thousand euro, it said, or that Ms Hand would be making a payment to someone who gave inaccurate evidence against her and ultimately to Mr McGregor - the man who raped her.
Mr Lawrence was represented in the civil proceedings by Michael Staines & Co, the same firm of solicitors representing Mr McGregor.
However, a statement this afternoon was issued on behalf of Mr Lawrence by a new firm of solicitors, Mulholland Law.
In the statement, they said they had been instructed to seek damages arising from an "abuse of process" by Ms Hand, in which Mr Lawrence was "maliciously subjected" to "horrendous litigation".
They said he cooperated fully with the gardaí and the DPP had determined there was no case against him.
They described the legal action taken against Mr Lawrence as "frivolous" and "vexatious". They said he had been exposed to substantial cost implications as well as several years of media scrutiny and "sensationalist tabloid publications, undermining his good standing and character".
The statement continued that Mr Lawrence did not assault or rape Ms Hand, and said he was reluctantly taking this action to protect his reputation and his family "in pursuit of justice" and "to ensure truth and transparency".
Ms Hand’s lawyers claimed Mr Lawrence became involved in the case as a "patsy" for Mr McGregor and that he made up a claim that he had consensual sex with Ms Hand in order to undermine her character.
These claims were strongly denied in court by Mr Lawrence.
Mr McGregor's appeal against the High Court jury's finding that he raped Ms Hand was rejected in its entirety by the Court of Appeal in July.
Ms Hand is now suing Mr McGregor as well as two former neighbours of hers, Samantha O'Reilly and Stephen Cummins, over Mr McGregor's withdrawn application to introduce what he said was new evidence in his appeal.
Documentation relating to the proposed new evidence was referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions by the Appeal Court to investigate possible perjury.
