Conor McGregor has told the jury in his civil trial that he wasn’t of the mind to have his friend, the second named defendant, take the fall for him. 

The MMA fighter and James Lawrence, of Rafter’s Road, Drimnagh, are being sued for damages arising from alleged rapes in a Dublin hotel in 2018.

Nikita Hand claims Conor McGregor raped her in the penthouse suite of the Beacon Hotel on the 9th of December 2018.

He denies that, claiming it was consensual.

His friend, James Lawrence, later told Gardaí that he also had consensual sex with her, twice, after Mr McGregor left the hotel.

Ms Hand says she has no recollection of that and has accused him of lying.

Under cross-examination today, Mr McGregor was asked if it was in his mind that Mr Lawrence might be the ‘patsy,’ or in other words, that he would “take the fall” for him.

“No, not an iota,” he said.

He later said he believed he paid for his friend’s legal fees but insisted there was, “no colluding” in all of this.

He also accepted that he took cocaine that day and denied that Ms Hand was a “replacement” for him after other girls went home after partying all night.

He has now finished giving his evidence.