A 15-year-old student who is registered to a national modelling agency has been awarded €25,000 damages for a “mildly disfiguring” scar on her foot.
Barrister Elizabeth Enright told a judge yesterday that broken tiles under the water line in a swimming pool had acted like a potato peeler when Shonagh Molloy kicked off from the wall while making a turn.
Ms Enright said the potato-peeling effect had lacerated the heel of the student’s right foot down to the tendons and she had to be taken to Temple Street children’s hospital. Sutures had been applied under local anaesthetic and taken out after a week.
Judge Alison Lindsay in the Circuit Civil Court heard that during maintenance of the pool a hole had been left in the side wall with broken, jagged tiles, which caused the injury.
Ms Enright said the student, of Estuary Court, Swords, Co Dublin, had been swimming on her 14th birthday on June 10th, 2010, in the pool at the Trinity Sports and Leisure Club, Hole in the Wall Road, Donaghmede, when the accident happened.
The court heard the student was registered to a modelling agency and was self-conscious about the scar, which changed colour and texture in varying temperatures. Doctors said it would be permanent but would constitute only a mildly disfiguring blemish, which the plaintiff preferred to keep covered. Her future on the catwalk would not be adversely affected as she walked normally.