Boxer awarded €22,500 after thigh sliced open by broken glass jar in cycling accident

Dublin's Four Courts

Ray Managh

March 16 2023 01:14 PM

A judge has approved a €22,500 settlement offer to Dublin teenage boxing champion Lee McEvoy whose thigh was gashed in a cycling accident.

Lee, who won a European youth championships bronze medal in Spain last year, suffered a deep laceration to his leg when he was only seven years old, Judge James McCourt heard in the Circuit Civil Court.

Barrister David Staunton told Judge McCourt that the accident happened while he was visiting his aunt and grandmother in a Dublin City Council flats complex in 2005.

Mr Staunton, who appeared with Margaret Reynolds of Quinn and Reynolds Solicitors for Lee, said he was a talented boxer and European champion medal winner.

Judge McCourt heard that Lee, (17) of Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin 7, had been a visitor at St Mary’s Place Flats, Dorset Street, Dublin and was cycling around when he fell and landed on a broken glass jar on a small rubbish pile.

The court was told Lee suffered a four inch long laceration to his thigh and had to be taken by ambulance to Temple Street Children’s Hospital after having received urgent medical attention from paramedics at the scene.

Mr Staunton said an x-ray had revealed there was glass still embedded in the wound and Lee had undergone surgery under general anaesthetic.

The wound had been so deep that he had to receive 35 stitches in four layers and detained overnight. He had been discharged the next day with his thigh in a cast.

Judge McCourt, approving the €22,500 settlement offer by Dublin City Council, said it was a nasty incident. He had been left with a scar but suffered no ongoing functional damage.

Mr Staunton, recommending the court’s approval of the settlement offer, said there could have been some difficulty with regard to liability in the case.