Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor has been ordered to pay all legal costs, estimated at €1.5m (£1.24m), in relation to a civil case brought by a Dublin woman, a judge has ruled.
It comes on top of the nearly €250,000 damages he was ordered to pay last month after a jury found he assaulted Nikita Hand in a Dublin hotel after a 2018 Christmas party.
The judge also said Manus should not be held liable for costs incurred by McGregor’s co-defendant James Lawrence, who the jury found had not assaulted the Dubliner.
He was a long-time friend of McGregor’s but they had filed a joint defense and therefore worked with each other “on a step-by-step basis”, a judge told the High Court in Dublin.
Had he found otherwise, Manus would have been liable for an estimated €400,000 in costs, scoring a Pyrrhic victory last month.
“It is completely unacceptable that Mr. Lawrence should be awarded any part of his costs, even though he was successful in his defense against Ms. Handl,” Justice Alexander Owens ordered.
Manus claimed that McGregor brutally assaulted and kidnapped her in a civil suit following a public prosecutor’s decision not to prosecute.
Her legal team argued that Lawrence found the story that consensual sex with her made her a “hussy”.
The court had ruled that he had suffered severe bruising and was still experiencing PTSD with night terrors, panic attacks and anxiety.
The judge said he had not yet decided what he was going to do about social media after the trial, in which McGregor complained he had been tried in a “kangaroo court”. To institute contempt of court.
His lawyer, Remy Farrell. He said the appeal was “probable”.
The matter will then be heard in a hearing on January 16.