NEW YORK • Conor McGregor, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) star, has been sued in Ireland by a woman who accused him of raping her in a hotel penthouse in 2018.
The suit was filed on Monday after the Irish police and prosecutors declined to pursue criminal charges against McGregor, whom they had investigated for more than a year, at one point arresting and questioning him.
Karen Kessler, a spokesman for McGregor, said in a statement that the allegations against him were "categorically rejected" and that he is "confident that justice will prevail" in the civil case.
A lawyer for the unidentified woman declined to comment on the details of the case. Irish prosecutors also declined to comment, and the police - without naming McGregor - only said they had referred the case to prosecutors.
UFC officials did not comment.
McGregor is set to fight on Saturday for the first time in 12 months, headlining a lightweight bout against Dustin Poirier in Abu Dhabi that will be the UFC's first pay-per-view showcase this year.
The 32-year-old Irishman has fought just twice in the UFC in the last four years. He also boxed against Floyd Mayweather in 2017.
Online records from Ireland's High Court confirm that the woman filed the lawsuit against McGregor and another man this month. They contain no other details. But The New York Times obtained the statement of claim filed by the woman in the case, which lays out for the first time her description of what happened.
In the early hours of Dec 9, 2018, after exchanging what the lawsuit called "flirtatious" messages on Instagram with McGregor, the woman and a friend were picked up by McGregor's driver and taken to a Dublin hotel, along with one of McGregor's friends. In the car, a bag of cocaine was "produced" and the woman said she took some, the lawsuit said.
While in the penthouse suite, the woman said in the statement of claim, she was "beckoned" to the bedroom by McGregor, who asked her to perform a lewd act on him, which she refused. McGregor began kissing the woman and removing her clothes, over her protestations, the statement said. After she bit and hit McGregor, he wrapped his arms around her neck and lifted her up three times, after which she ceased fighting back.
McGregor then told her, "That's how I felt in the Octagon, I had to tap myself out three times, that's how I felt", the lawsuit said. He raped her, according to the statement of claim, and demanded she lie on the bed next to him afterwards. The woman fell asleep and woke up in the early evening.
She said she was later told by the police that McGregor's friend said the fighter had sex with her, but she had no recollection of it and did not consent.
She was examined in a sexual assault treatment unit at a hospital. According to the statement, bruising was found on most of her body, and she had abrasions on her face, neck and right breast.
A month later, the woman went to the police and reported that she had been raped. She has not been able to work since May 2019 and describes a host of psychological and emotional problems.
The suit seeks a sum of €1,475,110 (S$2.37 million) to €1,759,850. That amount would cover her loss of current and future earnings, the sale of her Dublin home and the purchase of a house elsewhere "to escape the reminders of the ordeal", as well as medical expenses.
If this case reaches trial, it will be held before a jury. In Ireland, the standard of proof in civil cases is a balance of probabilities, meaning whether something is more likely than not to have occurred.
NYTIMES
