Claim settled over bottle attack on ballet dancer in Pod nightclub

A judge has heard that blood pumped from a hole in the head of a ballet dancer after she was hit with a bottle in the Pod nightclub in Dublin three years ago.

Kate Buckley, of Eden Brooke Drive, Rathfarnham, Dublin, told the Circuit Civil Court that, following a dinner party at her home to celebrate her 20th birthday, she had been in the nightclub with friends when she was assaulted.

She told barrister John Nolan she was leaving the Pod, in Harcourt Street, and had been waiting in the smoking area when a number of men began to harass her.

Threatened
One of the men had started moving towards her and, feeling threatened, she had pushed him away. He suddenly hit her over the head with a bottle, knocking her to her knees.

Ms Buckley, now 23, a ballet and dance teacher, yesterday told Judge Jacqueline Linnane: “I had a hole in my head and the blood was pumping out of it.”

She told Breffni Gordon, counsel for Pod Entertainment Ltd, she was not drunk at the time. She had two glasses of champagne at the dinner party and one or two sips from a few drinks in the nightclub.

“I am a ballet dancer and because of my fitness regime it is normal for me not to drink at all sometimes,” she said.

Ms Buckley said her assailant had been prosecuted for assault by the Garda. He had pleaded guilty to the offence in the Circuit Criminal Court and had been given an 18-month suspended sentence and deported after having agreed to make financial recompense to her.

Mr Gordon told the court it was not denied that a man in the nightclub had struck Ms Buckley over the head with a bottle, but the club denied it was responsible for the assault.

Following Ms Buckley’s evidence, Mr Nolan said there had been talks between the parties and the €38,000 damages claim had been settled for an undisclosed sum. Costs were awarded to Ms Buckley.