A three-year-old Dublin boy who was bitten on the face by a Labrador dog settled his case for €20,344 in Dublin Circuit Civil Court yesterday.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane was told that in August 2002 Tadhg Ó Connell was on Irishganny Strand with his mother during a family holiday in Clonakilty, Co Cork.
Tadhg, from Hollybrook Road in Clontarf, Dublin, was eating crisps when a Labrador, which had earlier been playing on the beach, attacked the boy.
The court heard that the dog, which was later put down, was on an extendable lead at the time with its owners, Frank and Orla O'Sulllivan, Talla Meadows, Drumree, Co Meath.
The dog knocked Tadhg twice to the ground and inflicted multiple lacerations to his face and neck.He was taken to University Hospital Cork where his facial wounds were stitched under general anaesthesia. The boy was kept in hospital for two nights.
His wounds did not need plastic surgery, the judge was told.
