Former MMA fighter, Conor McGregor and his friend, James Lawrence have asked the Supreme Court to hear their appeals in the civil cases taken by Nikita Hand against them.
In July, the Court of Appeal rejected Mr McGregor's appeal against the finding of a jury in the High Court that he raped Ms Hand in a hotel room in December 2018. The jury awarded her just under €250,000 in costs.
The jury found Mr Lawrence did not assault Nikita Hand. The Appeal Court also upheld the High Court’s decision not to award Mr Lawrence his costs.
In a statement, the new legal firm now acting for both men, Mullholland Law, said it had been instructed by the two men to file an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court and had filed these applications yesterday.
There is no automatic right of appeal to the Supreme Court. The court will meet and make a determination about whether or not to hear the appeal. It will only do so if it is satisfied that it involves a matter of general public importance or if it is satisfied it is in the interests of justice to hear the appeal.
Mulholland Law said both men were "deeply disappointed" by the decisions reached in the lower courts.
In the statement, solicitor Ciarán Mulholland said he believed the applications to the Supreme Court raised serious legal issues arising from the Court of Appeal’s judgment. He said they wanted the Supreme Court to acknowledge "the exceptional public interest in adjudicating on these applications favourably".
Mr Mulholland said Mr McGregor’s application focused on his Constitutional right to silence which he said was "applied in a highly prejudicial and unfair manner" in the lower courts. He said it was only right and just that it should be considered and clarified by the Supreme Court.
Mr McGregor’s lawyers had argued that the high court jury should not have been allowed to hear that he answered "no comment" more than 100 times when he was interviewed by gardaí about raping Ms Hand. However, the Appeal Court found the judge had given sufficient warnings to the jury that these answers could not be considered to support Ms Hand’s claim of rape. And it found there had not been a real risk of an unfair trial.
Mr Mulholland said there was also "a necessity" that the Supreme Court should clarify the issues raised by Mr Lawrence.
The Appeal Court refused to award him his costs despite the finding that he had not raped Ms Hand. In its judgment, the Appeal Court found that Mr Lawrence’s evidence that he saw consensual sex between Ms Hand and Mr McGregor must have been rejected by the jury.
It said aspects of Mr Lawrence’s evidence could only be regarded as "untruthful". And it pointed to the fact that Mr McGregor had paid Mr Lawrence’s legal fees. Mr Lawrence has begun separate legal proceedings against Ms Hand for what he says is "an abuse of process".
Mr Mulholland said the Appeal Court's ruling on costs was "unprecedented and frightening" as well as "legally shortsighted". He said "an award of costs must always follow the event irrespective of the client or judicial suspicions".
Mr Mulholland also said that while the decisions of the lower courts were respected, they were not accepted by Mr McGregor or Mr Lawrence and would be challenged. He noted that these were civil proceedings and said "media frenzy" had "cultivated this civil litigation into a political football, exploited by the opportunistic".
Gardaí are also investigating allegations of perjury relating to Mr McGregor’s withdrawal of proposed "new evidence" in the appeal.
A man and a woman were arrested and subsequently released without charge last week and gardaí say the investigation is continuing.
