19/07/2012

Couple Get £90,000 After Belfast Bouncers' Attack

A couple who were beaten up by bouncers in a Belfast nightclub will receive more than £90,000 in damages, the High Court has ruled.

They were attacked so "viciously", the court heard, they have been left unable to have children.

Security staff at Milk nightclub, which closed more than three years ago, dragged the man into the street and beat and kicked him about the head and body as he lay on the ground.

When the woman tried to intervene to protect him, she was restrained by another doorman, forced into a seat and dragged over a table by her legs.

The anonymous couple issued writs against Dundalk businessmen Anthony Roddy and Bernard Conlon trading as the Milk Bar and Club/ the Milk Nite Club Bar and Life Inns Ltd.

The husband was so badly injured he had to undergo an operation to remove one of his testes after the attack.

He was planning to reverse a previous vasectomy so he and his wife could have children.

But she is now in her mid-forties and her chances of conception are no longer considered high enough to make the reversal worth it.

High Court Master McCorry said: "Injury to the right testis... is undoubtedly a significant factor in that outcome, which means that they will not be able to have children together."

He said they had suffered depression, adjustment disorder and stress after the attack.

The wife, who suffered bruising, wrist and back pains, took an overdose at one stage, the court heard.

Master McCorry ruled that she should be awarded a total of £12,500 and her husband should receive £80,000.

(NE)

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