A hair stylist who alleges she was raped by Conor McGregor and his friend feared the mixed martial arts star was going to kill her during the ordeal, the High Court was told yesterday.

Nikita Hand, 35, has alleged that Mr McGregor and his friend James Lawrence, of Rafters Road, Drimnagh, both had sex with her twice without her consent in a Dublin hotel penthouse, following a cocaine-fuelled party.

She claims she was left extensively bruised and scratched following the assault, during which she claimed Mr McGregor held her in a ‘stranglehold’.

She told a doctor who examined her the following morning: ‘I didn’t fight him any more. I thought he was going to kill me.’

The court previously heard on Tuesday, Mr McGregor’s lawyers say Ms Hand, also known as Nikita Ni Laimhin, who has no automatic right to anonymity, is attempting extortion.

The judge said that it is alleged that the pair had ‘in effect raped her’.

The hair stylist claimed that during the attack the former UFC champion, nicknamed ‘Notorious’ told her during the alleged assault in 2018: ‘Now you know what it was like in the octagon.’

Beginning her own evidence in the case, which will continue today, she said: ‘He pinned me right down on the bed.

‘I remember putting my arms up to try to defend myself to keep him away from me. He kept pushing his weight down on top of me.’

The two men have denied her allegations, claiming the sex was consensual, and have suggested that Ms Hand is a ‘gold digger’ and a ‘fraud’, her barrister said.

All were present at the Four Courts as the civil case began yesterday as a jury of eight women and four men decide if the allegations are true, and if the plaintiff deserves compensation.

Opening the case, John Gordon, for Ms Hand, said his client who was 29 at the time of the alleged incidents, was living in Drimnagh with her partner and seven-year-old daughter, and had a successful career in a hair salon in Goatstown.

He said she had been at a work Christmas party on December 8, 2018, and that following the night out she and her friends returned to the salon to continue the party.

He said that his client ‘is no angel and does not pretend to be an angel’.

‘She was partying hard. She had lots to drink. Her spirit of choice was Bacardi, she also had some beer and she also had some cocaine,’ he said.

The jury also heard that she was also on antidepressants.

In a desire to continue the party, she contacted Mr McGregor, who was from the same area as her and with whom she had mutual friends, he said.

The court also previously heard on Tuesday that the pair had been in contact at various times via social media.

On the morning of December 9, he called to the salon and picked her up, along with another woman who was still there, the court heard.

Mr McGregor, Ms Hand and her friend sat in the back of the car as they were driven around for a while before calling to Mr Lawrence’s house, the jury heard.

Mr McGregor went into the house for around 15 minutes, before coming out with Mr Lawence and a bag of cocaine.

The court was told the drugs were shared between the athlete, the complainant and her friend.

Mr Gordon said that his client had started her period the day before, and had used a tampon.

‘She will tell you she does not have sex during her period,’ he said.

The group went to the Beacon Hotel, and went up to a penthouse suite, where the party continued.

Ms Hand said that Mr McGregor went into a bedroom and wanted her to perform oral sex, but she refused. She claimed he then ‘pinned her onto the bed’.

‘She was clearly no physical match for Mr McGregor,’ Mr Gordon said.

‘She will tell you that she was nervous. She tried to push him off her, but she was completely unable to do so.’

He said that in the course of the tussle, the watch on her wrist scratched her breast as he pressed down on her.

Mr McGregor then turned her over, and put her in an arm lock, before drawing her up by the neck until she could not breathe, Mr Gordon said.

She said that he told her: ‘Now you know what it was like in the octagon. I had to tap myself out three times.’

Mr Gordon said: ‘She was at this point completely terrified. She subjected herself to what was about to happen, which was a violent and vicious assault.’

He also told the court a doctor who examined Ms Hand after the incident found her tampon ‘embedded in her vagina’.

‘In the face of this Mr McGregor tells you this was a consensual encounter, that they were just having fun and a bit of rough sex,’ he said.

He continued: ‘What he is saying is that she gave him a licence to carry out what has to have been a brutal assault on her body.’

However, he said the jury would find her behaviour after the alleged assault ‘extraordinary’ and ‘bizarre’.

She did not call for help or dial 999, he said, but he added: ‘She was of course full of drugs.’

He said she went back to the room and hung out with Mr Lawrence, eventually getting a taxi home with him, the court heard.

She did not believe anything sexual occurred between them, until she was advised the following February that Mr Lawrence said they had sex twice, Mr Gordon said.

He told the jury this was not a criminal case, and that they would have to ‘decide what to make of it all’.

He said there would be a lot of noise, but that they should use their common sense in deciding the case, and ‘not be fooled’.

Mr McGregor and Mr Lawrence had issued a ‘blanket denial’ of her claim, he said.

Represented by the same solicitors, they said Ms Hand had engaged in a ‘flirtatious exchange’ of messages before the pair met up.

She had been ‘enjoying herself’ and had consensual sex with Mr McGregor, the defence alleged.

He claimed she had woken up and asked him for ‘more’, that she had shown her pleasure and had never indicated she was unhappy or wanted to stop.

They said that when Mr McGregor left, together with her friend, she had ‘kept pulling at him to stay’.

They said she then acted in a flirtatious way with Mr Lawrence, returning to a hotel room with him after kissing him and draping his arm around her.

She went with him to a pub in Drimnagh, before returning to the hotel and having consensual sex with him two times, the defence would claim, Mr Gordon said.

The pair finally left the hotel in a taxi, and were dropped home separately, the court heard. Mr Gordon said their defence was ‘self-serving’.

However, he said the final ‘vicious twist’ was an allegation by the defendants that her claim was ‘false, malicious and patently maintained in bad faith’.

The defence claimed in the evidence booklet that Ms Ni Laimhin had several opportunities to complain to people about how she was treated but did not.

They pointed to her claim for relocation costs of €750,000 and loss of earnings of €1million, claiming this was ‘tantamount to extortion’.

‘That puts it up to my client,’ Mr Gordon said. ‘She’s a gold digger, she’s a fraud.’ He said Ms Hand was brave, and that she sought vindication from the jury.

He added: ‘And for these defendants to breezily and cheekily dispose of her claim is something you will consider in due course.’

He said her initial concern on the morning after the alleged assault was that her tampon was stuck, but that it was her mother who called the Gardaí and his client was brought to the Rotunda hospital in an ambulance.

The court was told that she was shaking and in pain while being transferred to hospital.

He said she did not initially tell Gardaí who she claimed had assaulted her, as she was ‘frightened’ of Mr McGregor. ‘She was a gibbering wreck,’ he said.

Dr Daniel Kane, a gynaecologist who examined her at the hospital’s sexual assault treatment unit, said she had extensive bruising over her body, much of which appeared to be fingerprint bruising.

Ms Hand had described an assailant grabbing her by the neck in a ‘choke hold’, and that her knuckles were bruised from trying to push him away, he noted.

Judge Alexander Owens issued a strict warning that the jury should not act as private detectives, Google anything or research or comment on the case on social media.

The case continues.