Perjury arrests after High Court awards damages in Nikita Hand rape case

A Dublin court awarded judgment against a couple who filed affidavits supporting Conor McGregor's appeal in the Nikita Hand civil rape case. Both have been arrested on perjury charges.

High Court rules against couple who swore affidavits for McGregor in Hand rape case

Samantha O'Reilly and Steven Cummins, who submitted affidavits on behalf of former MMA fighter Conor McGregor in the Nikita Hand civil rape case, have been arrested on perjury charges following High Court judgments against them, rte.ie reports.

Ms Justice Emily Egan granted default judgments against the couple after neither O'Reilly nor Cummins entered an appearance in the proceedings. Costs were awarded to Ms Hand, and a separate hearing will be scheduled to assess the level of damages owed.

The couple had claimed they were former neighbours of Ms Hand, living across the road from her. Ms O'Reilly alleged she had witnessed Ms Hand's former boyfriend assault her — hours after Ms Hand said she had been raped by McGregor at a Dublin hotel in December 2018.

McGregor's legal team had intended to introduce the affidavits as "new evidence" in his appeal against a civil jury's finding that he raped Ms Hand. The lawyers argued the material offered a plausible explanation for the severe bruising found across Ms Hand's body. However, the proposed ground of appeal was dramatically withdrawn just as proceedings were about to begin in the Court of Appeal in July last year.

Ms Hand subsequently sued both the couple and McGregor for malicious abuse of the court process. Lawyers acting for her stated in supporting papers that O'Reilly and Cummins were not living at the address they described at the relevant time, and that the contents of their affidavits were "entirely concocted" to advance McGregor's interests.

McGregor has engaged with the civil proceedings and entered an appearance. O'Reilly and Cummins did not.

Ms Justice Egan placed a four-week stay on her orders to allow the couple an opportunity to apply to have the judgments set aside if they choose to come to court.

Source: Irish Independent