(FILES) In this file photo taken on January 26, 2020 Irish mixed martial arts artist Conor McGregor arrives for the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)
Charges of attempted sexual assault and indecent exposure against Irish mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor have been dropped because of a lack of evidence, a court in the Corsican city of Bastia announced Thursday.
“We had no material evidence to corroborate the complainant’s statements, including after the scientific expert input that had been ordered,” Bastia prosecutor Arnaud Viornery told AFP.
McGregor’s lawayer, Emmanuelle Ramond, said: “We welcome this decision because it is in line with what we expected.”
The accusations against McGregor, known as ‘Notorious,’ came when the Irish fighter was on the French island of Corsica last September preparing for a charity 180km water-bike relay race from Calvi to Monaco.
The prosecutor’s office in Bastia received a complaint “denouncing acts that could be described as attempted sexual assault and sexual exhibition.”
McGregor at the time “vigorously denied any accusation of bad behavior.”
McGregor is no stranger to controversy.
He hit the headlines in 2019 for an attack on an older man in a Dublin bar captured in a viral video.
In 2018 he pled guilty in Brooklyn, New York to disorderly conduct after attacking a bus filled with UFC fighters.
McGregor held the UFC title for featherweights from 2015 to 2016 and lightweights from 2016 to 2018 and lost to American legend Floyd Mayweather in August 2017 in a lucrative boxing match.
He is due back in action in Las Vegas on July 10 for a third fight against Dustin Poirier.
American Poirier demolished McGregor by knockout during their second meeting in January.
That one-sided bout followed McGregor’s first-round knockout victory over Poirier in their first meeting in 2014.