Nikita Hand (35) sought a break from giving evidence just three minutes after her case resumed this morning.
Mother-of-one Hand, a hair colourist from Drimnagh in Dublin, was in tears from the outset as her counsel Ray Boland SC resumed taking her through her evidence.
In an action for damages, Ms Hand claims she was raped by McGregor and his associate James Lawrence in a penthouse suite at the Beacon Hotel in Dubin on December 9, 2018.
She told the court yesterday how McGregor pinned her down to a bed in the penthouse shortly after she refused to perform oral sex on him.
Ms Hand was asked by Mr Boland to continue her account of events.
In tears, she told the court: “He pinned me down to the bed, pressed his whole body weight down on me so I couldn’t breathe.”
Within second of resuming, Ms Hand was shaking, tearful and struggling to stay composed.
“I couldn’t get up or breathe,” she continued.
“The more I tried to struggle and tried to get away, the more he liked it. He said: ‘I like that’.”
Nikita Hand outside the High Court in Dublin today. Photo: PA
Ms Hand told the presiding judge, Mr Justice Alexander Owens, she was trying her best to give evidence.
“I am really sorry,” she told the judge.
She continued: “The only thing I could move was my head. My only defence was to bite.”
Ms Hand told Mr Boland she bit McGregor, but she was not sure what part of his body she bit.
She said McGregor “didn’t like it” and “flipped” her around.
Ms Hand sought a break to compose herself and briefly left the courtroom. She resumed her evidence a few minutes later.
“I remember his arm around me and choking me,” she said.
“I couldn’t move. I was trying to fight as much as I could.”
Ms Hand continued: “He put his arm around my neck and choked me three times.”
McGregor and Lawrence deny her claims and say that what transpired that day was consensual.
In defence papers, they allege a claim for damages so she can relocate to a new home amounted to extortion.
The case, which is being heard by a jury of four men and eight women, is due to last two weeks.
