BOHEMIANS FOOTBALL CLUB and the Airtricity League have agreed to pay €44,000 in damages to an 11-year-old boy who was injured at a function at their ground eight years ago.

Three-year-old Jessie O’Brien was hurt while playing near the pitch-side dugout at a communion function at Dalymount Park.

Barrister Ivan Daly told Judge John O’Connor in the Circuit Civil Court that the child had been playing with other children near the dugout when he fell and injured his mouth and front teeth.

Counsel, who appeared with Killeen Solicitors of Mountjoy Square in Dublin, said that while a full defence had initially been entered in the case, liability was later conceded and a settlement offer of €44,000 had been made to the boy.

Counsel told the court that as a result of his fall, the child – of Patrick Heeney Crescent, Gloster Place, Dublin – suffered direct impact trauma to his mouth and nose and was taken to the emergency department of the Adelaide and Meath Hospital for treatment.

The accident happened on 11 May, 2013, and the barrister said that the boy’s solicitor had rightly decided not to rush the case to court pending further medical oversight of his treatment and dental development.

An examination had revealed a 1cm wound to his upper lip, which was bleeding and swollen, and that his left central incisor baby tooth had been lost, while another tooth was loose and partially impacted.

The barrister said that the child had been referred to the care of Professor Leo Stassen, consultant oral and maxillofacial surgery, who diagnosed hypoplasia of the child’s permanent central and lateral incisors.

A treatment was later proposed by Dr Abigail Moore, a paediatric dentist, for when the child’s teeth had fully erupted and matured.

Counsel told the court that the treatment plan envisaged a non-vital bleaching and micro-abrasion in the short term with the possibility of enamel veneers and possibly crowns at a later stage if necessary.

The judge said he considered the boy’s legal team to have done very well for the child and approved the settlement offer of €44,000.

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