Mr Lawrence was asked about a statement he gave to gardaí in which he said the sex between him and Ms Hand was consensual.

Mr Gordon SC put it to him that he told gardaí that it was soft sex that they had both enjoyed and that he was not responsible for the marks he had been shown in a photograph of Ms Hand.

He said he did not need to see the photographs in court again as he had seen them enough times.

Mr Lawrence said when he had sex with her "she had none of them bruises on her".

He said he didn't know where they had come from.

Mr Gordon said Ms Hand had gone out on Saturday, 8 December, and that Mr Lawrence had sex with her on the evening of Sunday, 9 December, "we are talking about a 24-hour period," he said.

Asked if Mr Lawrence accepted that Nikita Hand had sustained the bruising, Mr Lawrence again said he didn't know where she got it from, "she didn't get it from me," he said.

He said he had been around four feet away with Danielle Keally when Ms Hand had been with Conor McGregor and he said they had not heard anything but moaning and "sex she was enjoying".

Mr Gordon put it to him that the only place the bruising could have come from was Mr McGregor. Mr Gordon said it had all the hallmarks of a violent assault.

He said: "She didn't get them from me and as far as I know she didn't get them from Conor."

Mr Lawrence told Mr Gordon he was not a bruise expert. "You don't know where they came from and neither do I."