Two people have been charged with perjury in Ireland following an investigation into evidence submitted during Conor McGregor’s failed appeal of a civil case in which a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting Nikita Hand in 2018.
Samantha O’Reilly and Steven Cummins appeared before a Dublin court on Tuesday after police charged them with allegedly providing false statements during proceedings connected to McGregor’s appeal. Prosecutors claim the pair knowingly gave evidence that was untrue.
The investigation began after questions emerged over affidavits submitted during McGregor’s appeal against the civil court ruling.
O’Reilly, a former neighbor of Hand, claimed in an affidavit that she witnessed a physical altercation between Hand and her former partner around the same period as the incident at the center of the civil case.
The evidence was initially expected to form part of McGregor’s appeal. However, it was later withdrawn without explanation.
Justice Brian O’Moore previously commented on the sudden withdrawal, saying the manner in which the evidence was abandoned at the last moment remained “mysterious.”
Hand denied the allegations and told the court that the claims made by O’Reilly and Cummins were false.
“Lies,” Hand said when addressing the allegations during the proceedings.
O’Reilly reportedly faces two counts of providing false statements dating back to January and May of last year.
Authorities arrested O’Reilly and Cummins at their Ballyfermot home on Tuesday morning. The court later remanded both individuals on continuing bail until Nov. 9.
The perjury charges come after McGregor’s unsuccessful appeal of the civil judgment. In November 2024, a jury found the former UFC two-division champion civilly liable for assaulting Hand in a Dublin hotel in December 2018.
McGregor consistently denied the allegations throughout the proceedings, maintaining that the encounter was consensual. He later appealed the verdict but lost on all grounds in July 2025.
Following the ruling, the court awarded Hand €248,603 in damages and ordered McGregor to pay approximately €1.3 million in legal costs.
Despite the outcome of the case, McGregor continues to insist he is innocent.
“I am an innocent man,” McGregor said before his scheduled UFC comeback earlier this year. “I’ll stand for my innocence until the day I go out. This is still a situation where I fight. There’s a reason it didn’t go where it went and went to a civil trial. It is what it is. It stings deep. I continue to fight.
“I know the truth. I know that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. I know that anything done in darkness will soon come to light. I trust in God that it’s coming. You best believe it’s coming, and I look very, very forward to the day.”
The latest charges against O’Reilly and Cummins are separate from the civil case itself and relate specifically to statements allegedly made during McGregor’s appeal process.
