Mum faces six-figure compensation bill after son, 10, blinded friend

Incident happened during crazy golf birthday party

A MUM whose “boisterous” 10-year-old blinded a friend with a crazy golf club during his birthday party is facing up to a big compensation bill.

The birthday boy was annoyed he could not hole the ball when he took a “big swing like a professional golfer” with the metal club on an amusement park crazy golf course.

The club struck a nine-yearold schoolfriend in the face, causing a devastating injury that left him blind in his left eye, the High Court heard.

And now, in a case that will strike fear into the heart of any parent, a top judge has ruled the 10-year-old’s mother to pay the injured boy damages.

She knew her son - who cannot be identified and was referred to only as J - was “boisterous and required firm handling”, said Mrs Justice Whipple.

And, ordering the mother to pay damages to the injured boy - S - the judge said she “negligently” failed to tell her lad not to swing the club too high.

The amount of compensation payable to S is bound to be a six-figure sum, although an exact figure has yet to be calculated.

J and two of his schoolfriends were celebrating his birthday at the Bosworth Water Park, near Market Bosworth, when disaster struck in 2013.

His mother was close by the crazy golf course with the family dog, but the first she knew of the accident was when she heard the other boy scream.

S’s parents said J was “volatile and unpredictable”, but the birthday boy’s parents insisted he was “a normal, wellbehaved, boy”.

J’s mother said she had asked the boys whether they had played crazy golf before and they all assured her that they had and knew what to do.

They had all been on a crazy golf party before and she warned them to “keep their distance whilst each player took their turn.”

A judge at Leicester County Court found last year that, although J was sometimes impulsive, he was “not a dangerous child”.

He had never shown any signs of being violent, and Judge Alison Hampton said his mother had reasonably super- vised the party.

But, overturning that ruling on Monday, Mrs Justice Whipple said the mother was aware of her son’s “character traits.”

She told the High Court in Birmingham: “J required firm handling because he could be boisterous and impetuous. His mother knew this.

“I conclude that it was reasonable to expect J’s mother to give a firm and clear instruction to J that he should not swing his club.

“This was the very minimum which was required...J would not have swung his club if he had been told not to.

“The failure to provide firm handling, in the form or a clear instruction to J, was a negligent failure by J’s mother”.

The water park’s managers, the Bosworth Water Trust, were also found liable to compensate S for his injuries.

The crazy golf course was “aimed at children” and there should have been a sign in place, warning golfers against raising their clubs too high.

Only after the accident was a risk assessment carried out, a notice put up explaining the rules of the game, and metal putters replaced by rubber ones.

How the damages bill will be split between J’s mother and the trust has yet to be decided.