Plan B Forum

Blaming a pub owner for the alleged injuries of a woman during a rush to grab a spot prize at an Ann Summers sex toy party would fly in the face of common sense, a court has been told.

Sylvia Deehan, 46, is suing a bar near her Dublin home after claiming she was shoved into a speaker when 'a ring that goes around a certain part of a man' was thrown in the air. The toy was up for grabs as part of a ladies night at the Lough Inn pub in Loughlinstown, which climaxed in a performance by the Hunks of Desire male stripper troupe.

On the final day of the case before Dublin's High Court, a safety expert said a ban on spot prizes at such parties - which he said was a custom going back generations - would be the same as banning dancing. Summing up evidence, defence barrister Joe McGettigan SC, for the pub owners Loughlinstown Inn Ltd, accused mother-of-two Ms Deehan of having two versions of what actually happened on the night, on January 21, 2011.

In her sworn testimony, she said she was bursting balloons on the floor when in full view of at least another 62 women at the party she went to catch the spot prize when she was pushed from behind and hit a speaker next to the disc jockey's box. She alleges she injured her ribs. But she told an investigating engineer - who surveyed the premises on her behalf as part of an earlier claim - that she was sitting on a bar stool and jumped from it, said Mr McGettigan.

The two versions were totally and absolutely different, he said.

The barrister argued that the Ann Summers' representative, along with bar staff, did not see anyone thrown to the floor and Ms Deehan, who has the onus of proof, had failed to put forward a convincing case.