October 2006

£220,000 FOR REVELLER LEFT BRAIN-DAMAGED BY BOUNCER'S PUNCH

Lawford Kidd acted for a client who suffered brain damage after being punched by a bouncer outside a nightclub has been awarded £220,000 in compensation.

Rock Steady Security was ordered to pay the damages to Colin Ashmore, 31, whose skull was fractured following a confrontation with a doorman after being thrown out of the nightspot for being drunk.

Mr Ashmore, who was on a stag weekend, was punched by Scott Moncrieff and fell back and struck his head on the pavement. Mr Moncrieff, 33, insisted he had acted in self-defence, but a judge dismissed the plea and ordered his employer, Rock Steady Security, to pay the damages.

Lord Emslie said at the Court of Session that the award would have been £274,000, but he ruled Mr Ashmore had provoked the incident and was 20 per cent to blame. Mr Ashmore, of Dublin, worked as an IT consultant at the time, in April 2000, and his last memory of the weekend was being in a bar in Edinburgh city centre about 7pm. He next remembered waking up in hospital six days later.

Mr Moncrieff subsequently stood trial for assault, but a jury found the charge not proven.

In the damages action, which required a lower standard of proof, Mr Ashmore's lawyers maintained that Rock Steady was liable for an assault which had caused a fractured skull and diffuse brain-damage, and severe and lasting consequences. Mr Ashmore now worked as a painter in a car repair business.

Mr Moncrieff told the court Mr Ashmore had been aggressive and verbally abusive as he tried persistently to get back into Club 30, on Frederick Street, in the early hours. He said Mr Ashmore headbutted him, and he retaliated with a punch. It was an immediate reaction, he added. He had just defended himself in the blink of an eye.

Lord Emslie said CCTV footage taken just before Mr Ashmore was punched showed him being "intermittently argumentative and abusive".

However, Lord Emslie said, while there was contact between Mr Ashmore's head and Mr Moncrieff's face "any headbutt was minor and ineffectual" and did not justify Mr Moncrieff's response. The judge accepted Mr Ashmore's behaviour had been provocative, but said he was satisfied "the major share of responsibility for what subsequently happened must remain with Moncrieff".