Two people who made sworn statements supporting Conor McGregor’s failed appeal against a civil jury finding that he assaulted Nikita Hand have been charged with perjury.
Samantha O’Reilly, 38, and Steven Cummins, 39, appeared before Dublin District Court on Tuesday after an investigation by Ireland’s national police, An Garda Síochána.
As reported by RTÉ News and other outlets, O’Reilly and Cummins are accused of knowingly making false statements in judicial proceedings. O’Reilly faces two counts relating to statements made in January and May 2025, while Cummins faces one count concerning a statement from January 2025.
Neither entered a plea on Tuesday. The Director of Public Prosecutions has directed that both cases proceed to the Circuit Criminal Court, where they could face a jury trial.
A conviction could carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
O’Reilly and Cummins were released on bail with conditions requiring them to report weekly to a Garda station, remain contactable by phone and have no contact with witnesses.
They are due back in District Court on November 9 to be served with the prosecution’s formal evidence before the case is sent forward for trial.
The charges against O’Reilly and Cummins stem from evidence McGregor sought to introduce while appealing Hand’s 2024 civil case against him.
A High Court jury found McGregor seriously sexually assaulted Hand at the Beacon Hotel in Dublin in December 2018 and awarded her €248,603 in damages. McGregor maintained that their encounter was consensual.
The verdict form asked jurors whether McGregor had “assaulted” Hand. However, in later rejecting McGregor’s appeal, Mr Justice Brian O’Moore said the trial judge’s directions had been “brutally clear” and that jurors could have been in no doubt that they were deciding whether McGregor had assaulted Hand “by raping her.”
During his appeal, McGregor sought permission to introduce affidavits from O’Reilly and Cummins, who said they had lived opposite Hand and her then-partner at the time.
O’Reilly claimed she saw Hand’s former partner moving in a manner that suggested he was kicking and hitting her. Cummins said O’Reilly and their daughter woke him and that he heard screaming and shouting coming from Hand’s home.
McGregor’s lawyers argued that the accounts offered an alternative explanation for bruising found on Hand’s body.
Hand denied that her former partner had assaulted her and described the claims contained in the affidavits as lies.
McGregor then abruptly withdrew his application to introduce the evidence shortly before the Court of Appeal hearing began in July 2025.
The Court of Appeal subsequently referred documentation to the Director of Public Prosecutions after Hand’s lawyers raised concerns over possible perjury. O’Reilly and Cummins were arrested last September as part of the resulting investigation.
McGregor went on to lose his appeal in its entirety. Ireland’s Supreme Court declined to hear a further challenge in December 2025, finding that a further appeal was not warranted.
