Ex-soldier claims damages after being shot in eye during paintball

Published on Sunday 29 January 2012 00:00

A FORMER soldier is suing a Scottish paintball firm for up to £400,000 after he was shot in the face and lost the sight in one eye.

Allan Weir was shot from less than 6ft away by a paintball pellet travelling at around 280ft per second, causing his right eyeball to “burst”.

Weir, 28, who has two children, has struggled to find work since the horrific incident and says he still suffers intense pain from the injury.

The former Scots Guardsman, from Edinburgh, was working as a marshal at the paintball firm in 2008 when a fellow worker shot at him, not realising the gun was loaded.

Calvin Blyth was convicted at Edinburgh Sheriff Court of culpable and reckless conduct and sentenced to 150 hours’ community service.

But Weir is now suing APE Paintball, based in Ratho, near Edinburgh, at the Court of Session for compensation.

He alleges the firm failed to provide marshals with proper training in the handling of paintball weapons.

The company strongly denies the claims and alleges Weir sparked the incident by “shooting” Blyth in the leg with compressed air.

Weir says he has fallen heavily into debt since the shooting. He said: “I can’t work. I’m finding it hard to adjust to life. I can’t even drive anymore.”

The physical consequences are just as serious, with Weir claiming he can do little more than make out vague shapes with his right eye.

“I can’t focus on anything. Bright light tends to bother me, I get migraines if I’m in the light too long,” he said.

Even eating cold food causes intense pain in his damaged eye, he says, a result of the nerve damage caused by the paintball.

The amount of damages sought from APE has not been agreed. But last year Anthony Phee, from Manchester, won £400,000 in damages after he was blinded in one eye after being struck by a ball at Niddry Castle Golf Club in Winchburgh, West Lothian.

Weir said he was suing the company because “we weren’t given proper training, it was a shambles”.

Weir had only started work at the paintball site on 6 September, 2008, the day before he was shot. He had been discharged from the Scots Guards after suffering a knee injury.

He was helping Blyth and another workmate clean the weapons for customers, who currently pay £55 for a day’s skirmishing session.

Weir said he was not wearing a safety mask at the time because he was in the “safe area”.

Admitting it “wasn’t the smartest thing to do”, Weir said he fired an unloaded paintball gun at Blyth’s leg, having first made sure it was not loaded.

The court heard that Blyth, who had been working at the site for 14 months, responded by picking up a nearby gun and shooting at Weir’s face without checking if the gun was loaded.

“It felt like being hit by a hammer. I thought my eye had been burst,” he said.

Doctors found that his iris had been torn by the impact and there was no hope of restoring his sight. He underwent surgery last year to deal with chronic headaches and has only recently had stitches taken out of the eye.

Returning to the army has been ruled out because of the eye injury, and even everyday tasks such as using a computer and driving are beyond him.

“If I use a computer for more than 15 minutes I get headaches,” he said.

Weir, who looks after his sons – aged eight and 15 months – full-time, is now £14,000 in debt.

“I just want to get my life back on track,” he said.

But the manager of the paintball firm, who is the defender in the court action, said Weir must take responsibility for his actions.

Gordon Craig said: “If he had been wearing his safety mask it would never have occurred. He was fully aware of that. It’s a load of nonsense that there wasn’t proper training in place.”

He said: “I now tell people as part of my safety briefing that one of my staff was badly injured in the eye.”

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edinburghccs

Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 10:38 PM

jdawg29 yeah now youve been told that you have to wear a mask as mr craig is facing closure? turns out he hasnt done disclosures on his employess(yeah kids go their and his employess could be well...) also hasnt been paying taxni!!! weir may be an ass but at the end of the day he lost his sight throught lack of training ect ect ect rachelShawn first off miss using military is very seriouse maybe should have used another name am guessing weir knows you as you talk about him as you do? silly really its neither here nor their on weirs past at the end of the day he did not deserve this! i think if yous where in this situation well how would you fell i know how i would! i can only guess that you know mr craig or work for him ....??? also why all the negitave coments on weir..wait wait i have a pitch fork some were do you have the lighter to light the torches? we will go after the guy that lost his sight because an employee recklessly shot him ..... yeah lets get weir.... lets hope that nothing like this happens to you hmmm.

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djdawg29

Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 06:21 PM

hi people i just want to state for the record that i work for gordon craig at ape paintball and have done for around a year. when i started i got told to always have my mask on unless i was in base camp which is where the customer come to. i have received the proper training and the way weir stating that he did not have his mask on because he thought he was in the safe zone is a done right lie as the only place to have paintball guns are from the gun hut onwards and it states on the gun hut as u walk in that masks must be on at all times and there is atleast five signs stating this on the way to the gun hut so i believe that it is entirely weir own fault that he got injured because there are plenty of signs about and also if u were in the army u shud now better and there is that thing called common sense that dictates to all sensible people there is guns that need to be clear maybe i will keep my mask on until they are cleared then it wud be fine.. i never take my mask of past the gun hut as it is straight into live firing so to speak. thanks for reading this

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WMDHammy

Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 11:57 AM

Weir admits himself he should have been wearing goggles. I don't know how much training he got but the risk of not wearing your goggles is obvious. There are signs all over every paintball site in the country saying "goggles on!" and all customers are given a safety speech which I assume marshals are present for and as a marshal was he not supposed to enforce that rule above all others? If he was working there I see no way that he wasn't aware (trained or untrained) that paintball GUNS are not toys and can cause some serious damage! The man is clearly a fool. And edinburghccs I think you need to go back to school if your mentioning shotguns! Fool you may aswell have said what if he stuck an rpg up his nose!

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RachelShawn

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 06:52 PM

I would like to clear up a statement made in this report : 'The former Scots Guardsman,' Allan Weir did NOT make it past the army training process; he was dishonorably discharged, for previous convictions he failed to disclose on his enlistment forms. 'Former' soldier. I don't think 20 minutes service applies, do you ? You may also like to know that Mr Weir was again convicted in 2010 for wine theft totalling £7,000. Nice chap, eh.

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edinburghccs

Monday, January 30, 2012 at 05:48 PM

yeah maybe he should have been wearing his mask but what if it was a shot gun? would blyth be done for murder? was weir trained? by the looks of things this gordon craig was a shoddy person anyways! funny businesses! i say he deserves every penny! as he i would guess yeah the Marshall's would be funny about taking your mask off well know they are! these measures arent put in to place until someone looses an eye! sorry weir couldn't think of anything else and as i am lead to believe it was a senior Marshall that shot him ??? themanwithtwobrains go back to school

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bifter

Monday, January 30, 2012 at 09:15 AM

Too many ambulance chasers around these days! The boss mentions that he should have been wearing his mask, which means they must have been on the course at the time. When I went there the one thing they emphasised above all during the safety briefing was that you should never, never remove your mask until you are off the course. One guy did take his mask off after the first exercise and the marshals were screaming at him, he almost got thrown out on the spot. Besides this, the guy has clearly contributed to the incident by larking about, this would be given weight in any civil case. As long as the basic safety training for marshals was followed, I can't see the firm being held liable - but stranger things have happened in our litigious modern culture.

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themanwith2brains

Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 07:00 AM

gie him nowt, ex soodger should have known better than to play john wayne, its his own fault for f3cking about

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