A "bullyboy prefect" at a Dublin school seriously injured a junior boarder when he kneed him in the groin, the Circuit Civil Court was told yesterday.
Mr David Nolan BL, for the boy, told Judge Liam Devally the assault had been devastating for his client, 15-year-old David Beamish, of Treaton Mill, Copsen Lane, Esher, Surrey. He said David was a boarder at King's Hospital Boarding School, Palmerstown, Dublin, when on November 10th , 1995, he was attacked by a prefect, Michael Gibson-Brabson.
Gibson-Brabson, in raising his knee into Beamish's groin, had fractured one of the boy's testicles. "It was a very serious injury and he was in hospital for some time," he said. "Fortunately he has made an excellent recovery."
Mr Nolan said the school had offered the boy a £10,000 settlement and he was recommending that it be approved by the court.
He told Judge Devally that he and senior counsel considered the action would be a difficult one to sustain on liability.
"In relation to the school's duty of care, this was an unprovoked attack from another pupil who previously had an exemplary record, so much so as to have been appointed a prefect," Mr Nolan said.
He said that if the action was to go ahead he might have difficulty "getting off the starting blocks on negligence" before another judge, who might consider the school could not have taken any steps to prevent the type of assault that had taken place.
Mr Nolan said that on the basis of a successful action the damages might well be worth more, but in the interests of the plaintiff he was recommending approval of the settlement. Judge Devally said counsel had "done very well" in achieving the settlement. He said young Beamish would be 18 on March 1st, and he ordered that the money be paid out to him directly rather than have him wait the four weeks until he achieved his majority.