The jury in the civil trial of Conor McGregor has notified the judge that they saw somebody pointing a mobile phone at them yesterday from the upstairs public gallery and were worried that any photos or filming would be "circulated".
Recording and photography is prohibited in the court area, said Mr Justice Alexander Owens who then sent a garda to the gallery.
"It is a contempt of court to take photos of the jury - it is totally unacceptable - and there will be steps taken in the event that anyone is suspected of that," said Mr Justice Owens, who is hearing the fourth day of evidence in the trial.
Mother of one Nikita Hand is giving evidence in the High Court civil trial and alleges that Mixed Martial arts star Mr McGregor - once the highest-earning sportsperson in the world - "brutally raped and battered" her in a Dublin hotel.
Ms Hand is seeking damages from Mr McGregor and James Lawrence, of Rafter's Road, Drimnagh, Dublin 12, arising from the events of December 9th, 2018, at the penthouse suite of the Beacon hotel in Dublin where she alleges she was raped.
Both Mr McGregor and Mr Lawrence deny the allegations.
'Too scared'
On Friday, at the High Court, Ms Hand told Remy Farrell SC, for Mr McGregor, that she was "too scared" to tell her boyfriend of the events of December 9th, 2018, and said that Mr McGregor warned that she would be "killed" if she disclosed his identity to anyone in relation to the alleged rape.
Ms Hand told Mr Farrell that she had told her then boyfriend that she believed she was in the Morgan Hotel in Dublin City because the bath and the decor looked alike.
Ms Hand also said she did not want her boyfriend to know the truth of what had happened because she claimed she did not want to "hit reality" when she returned home to her boyfriend at around 2am on December 10th, 2018.
Mr Farrell put it to Ms Hand that she lied to her boyfriend because she did not want him to know that, contrary to what she told her then boyfriend, that she was in a penthouse suite in the Beacon hotel with her female friend and two men, a statement with which the plaintiff agreed.
Ms Hand had texted her boyfriend that she had been out with a number of work colleagues at a different bar when she was in fact going to the hotel with Mr McGregor, Mr Lawrence, and her female friend but has told the court that she thought she was going to a party to meet people.
Ms Hand said she had lied to her boyfriend because she was "after being raped and battered" by Mr McGregor and that she "didn't care about anything just about my body, I was so sore and upset and knew I had to go to hospital," at the time.
John Fitzgerald SC, for Mr Lawrence, said that his client was "here not because of what you [Ms Hand] said but because of what he said to the guards in January 2019. He brought himself into this case".
Witness statement
When Ms Hand went to gardaí in January 2018 alleging that she had been raped by Mr McGregor, Mr Lawrence had to give a witness statement in which he claimed that he twice had consensual sex with Ms Hand after Mr McGregor left the Beacon at around 6.20pm.
Ms Hand said that Mr Lawrence's claim of consensual sex was "lies" but that she could not remember large portions of the night of December 9, 2018.
Mr Fitzgerald said that in her complaint to gardaí and in her interview to the sexual assault treatment unit in the Rotunda Hospital that she referred "throughout" to a single male attacker, whom she alleges in Mr McGregor.
Mr Fitzgerald put it to Ms Hand that she also told her friends that there was a sole attacker and a single allegation of rape.
Ms Hand went to gardaí in January 2019 but the court has heard she was “completely devastated” when she was told the Director of Public Prosecutions had decided not prosecute Mr McGregor or Mr Lawrence because there was “no reasonable prospect” of convictions.
Ms Hand told Mr Fitzgerald that she had no memory of the night after she woke up around 6pm in the hotel next to Mr McGregor and that while gardaí showed her stills of CCTV footage from the hotel she had no memory of it.
Ms Hand told Mr Fitzgerald that she was "shocked" by Mr Lawrence's statement claiming they had consensual sex because after she told him about "what Conor does to women" he was calming her down, got her a drink and food and was trying to reassure her.
"Do you not believe him?" asked Mr Fitzgerald. "Absolutely [not]," said Ms Hand.
Mr Fitzgerald put it to Ms Hand that she had not fallen asleep after the alleged rape and that in fact "a lot went on, involving yourself" with James Lawrence, Conor McGregor and her female friend.
Ms Hand said she remembered being in the bedroom with Mr McGregor, but she was not going into the room to have sex and that she was raped.
Mr Fitzgerald said that the door to the room was open and that "you could be heard clearly making moaning noises" and that she was sitting on top of Mr McGregor having "pleasurable sex", which the plaintiff denied.
Mr Fitzgerald put it to Ms Hand that her friend remarked to her that Ms Hand had bought a house with her then boyfriend and that she was going "to regret this".
Ms Hand denied the accusation of consensual sex and could not recall the suggestion of the comment by counsel regarding the female friend.
"I think this is just another made-up story," said Ms Hand.
Mr Fitzgerald said that his client was having sex with Ms Hand's friend but went to the bathroom at one point and saw Ms Hand naked on top of Mr McGregor, to which Ms Hand again replied "lies".
"You were fast asleep all of this time? And all of this is made up?" said Mr Fitzgerald to the plaintiff, who said it was.
Mr Fitzgerald put it to Ms Hand that she said, after the alleged rape, to Mr Lawrence "you all put blind eyes to what Conor does to women" and repeated that phrase to gardaí when giving her statement on January 5th, 2019.
"You had a very clear memory of the actual text of what you told James Lawrence," said Mr Fitzgerald.
"There seems to be periods of gloom when you remember nothing and then the clouds momentarily part, and you remember what you said to James Lawrence," said counsel.
The trial before Mr Justice Owens and a jury of eight women and four men continues at the High Court and is expected to last two weeks.
