Boy speared in eye by paintbrush sues for £2½m

Published on Wednesday 2 December 2009 21:50

A SCHOOLBOY who was left with brain damage when he fell in a classroom on to a paintbrush that went into his eye is seeking damages of £2.5 million.

Thomas Brown, who was ten at the time, lost the sight in his eye and sustained a brain injury that left him with disabilities, a court heard yesterday.

He had been kneeling on the floor painting scenery for a school play when a classmate bumped into him and he was pushed forward.

Thomas landed on another pupil's foot-long paintbrush.

One of the teachers who was supervising the class told a judge that safety measures had been taken.

Lynn Stirrat said: "We thought we had minimised the risk, but obviously … we had no reason to imagine something as horrible as happened."

The damages action, taken in the name of Christopher Brown, the boy's father, of Motherwell, is against North Lanarkshire Council, which denies liability. It says the same type of long, pointed paintbrush had been used in schools throughout the UK without anything similar happening.

In April 2003, Thomas attended Ladywell Primary School in Motherwell. The Court of Session in Edinburgh heard that he and other pupils were painting on sheets of paper on the floor.

A girl had her back to him and knocked against Thomas. He lost his balance and fell on to the end of the brush being held by the boy next to him. The brush penetrated his left eye and his brain.

"She was extremely upset … she had been painting and leaned back," said Mrs Stirrat.

"We were putting on a show called Joseph and painting the scenery. It was not a normal activity to be painting on the floor, but it had been done before for shows in previous years."

Thomas was taken by ambulance to hospital and underwent surgery to remove the paintbrush. Doctors feared he might have only a 50 per cent chance of survival.

He was allowed home after six weeks, but "has been left with a number of permanent disabilities", his father claims in the action.

Initially, Thomas, now 17, had used a wheelchair but can now walk, although with some loss of control and poor balance. He has no sight in his left eye, and the brain injury has resulted in poor concentration and memory, limited reasoning and disinhibition. He has mood swings and outbursts of temper.

The court action claims Thomas's prospects of finding work are remote because of his "significant cognitive impairment", and that he would be unlikely to live independently in the future, certainly not without professional support.

Mr Brown alleges that more care should have been taken of Thomas and other pupils during the painting, and that the risks involved had not been properly assessed. After the accident, the council instructed teachers that art work should not be carried out at floor level and that paintbrush handles should be shortened and the ends rounded or capped, he says.

Mrs Stirrat said she and her colleague had aimed to create as safe an environment as possible.

"We cleared space, there was a reduced number of pupils, and we used paintbrushes which had been issued throughout the school for many years," she said.

North Lanarkshire Council says it was not foreseeable that an injury of such magnitude could occur. The case is expected to last several days. The judge, Lady Dorrian, will issue her ruling later.