The High Court has ordered MMA athlete Conor McGregor to return or destroy any copies of CCTV material he may have and to refrain from sharing it during the civil case Nikita Hand filed against him, reports RTE.
According to Mr. Justice Alex Owens, a jury found that Mr. McGregor had sexually assaulted Nikita Hand on December 9, 2018, at the Beacon Hotel in Dublin, and she was given over €250,000 in compensation.
The judge said that the jury had definitively found against Mr. McGregor and that this would not change until Mr. McGregor convinced a higher court to reverse the decision, reports RTE.
He asserted that he had no right to make untrue statements or to exploit fragments of evidence in the public sphere to support his own positions.
According to the judge, there was a genuine and observable danger that Mr. McGregor would provide the video to Gabriel Ernesto Rapisarda, an Italian business colleague who has asserted that the video’s impending publication would boost sales of Mr. McGregor’s stout, reports RTE.
He said that Ms Hand’s attorneys had not received any consolation from Mr McGregor’s lawyers when they wrote to him asking for a promise that he would not distribute the video, and that he had failed to deliver one during today’s court hearings.
The judge said that in order to ensure that a party did not engage in contempt of court, he was using his inherent authority.
He claimed that the video was only used to get ready for the action and during the course of it, having been supplied by An Garda SÃochana as part of the civil action’s discovery procedure, reports RTE.
He stated that the parties were required to abide by this guideline.
The judge declared that Mr. McGregor no longer needed to keep copies of the CCTV or any other papers because the case was now resolved.
In addition to having a sizable social media following, this kind of content might be seriously abused, reports RTE.
The court stated that if Mr. McGregor’s appeal was granted, the video might agitate social media users before the case’s second hearing.
The video captured Ms. Hand, Mr. McGregor, and their companions James Lawrence and Danielle Kealy in the Beacon Hotel’s parking lot and elevator both before and after Mr. McGregor attacked her, reports RTE.
She didn’t appear to have been severely abused, according to Mr. McGregor’s side.
According to Ms. Hand, she grew agitated when the video was displayed since she was obviously quite inebriated, reports RTE.
During the trial, it was played to the court several times, and the jury saw it as they deliberated.
“Necessary to nip all this in the bud” is what Judge Owens remarked.
He directed Mr. McGregor to make arrangements for the permanent removal of any footage from his personal devices and to surrender any materials that are still in his control, reports RTE.
In addition, he made him swear an affidavit detailing the actions he had done to accomplish this.
The judge stated that he may see it at his solicitor’s office under supervision if he needed to view it again before filing an appeal, reports RTE.
Additionally, the judge mandated that Mr. McGregor get in touch with anyone to whom he may have given the video and tell them to give it back to him.
According to him, making the video public would also violate Ms. Hand’s right to privacy and data protection laws.
In order to give him time to swear an affidavit, Mr. McGregor’s solicitors had requested that he postpone his consideration of this case, reports RTE.
However, the judge deemed this insufficient, and Mr. McGregor had enough opportunity to certify a document and console Ms. Hand’s attorneys.
Additionally, Mr. Justice Owens has mandated that Mr. McGregor cover the majority of the proceedings’ projected €1.3 million in costs.
On the condition that Mr. McGregor promptly pay €200,000 in fees and €100,000 of the award, he granted a stay of the award and costs, reports RTE.
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