Conor McGregor Loses Appeal of Rape Lawsuit

A three-judge appeals court in Ireland on Thursday rejected Conor McGregor's appeal of a civil jury verdict that awarded $260,000 to a woman who accused the mixed martial arts fighter of raping her in 2018. "This appeal has retraumatized me over and over again, I've been forced to relive it," his accuser said outside the Dublin court after the unanimous ruling was announced. "Today I can finally move on and try to heal," she said. McGregor was not present to hear the judges dismiss all grounds of his appeal of the lawsuit, the Irish Times reports.

The appeals court ordered that the woman be reimbursed her nearly $1.5 million in legal costs, a payment that had been paused while the appeal was heard. McGregor denied the accusations, but a jury found in November that he assaulted her in a hotel penthouse. His arguments on appeal included that his answers when questioned by police—when he reportedly said "No comment" more than 100 times—shouldn't have been presented to the jury, per the BBC, and that the jury instructions should have been phrased differently.