A CASHIER, terrified of developing AIDS after receiving a syringe jab in a robbery, has been awarded £10,600 damages.
In the Circuit Civil Court Judge Dominic Lynch said Primo Service Stations was negligent in failing to give her proper protection on a night when management expected a robbery.
Mr Tony Hunt, counsel for Mrs Siobhan Dee, Balrothery Estate Tallaght, Dublin, said gardai had the Primo filling station in The Square, Tallaght, under surveillance.
Management had posted staff around the forecourt, he said to prevent raiders from escaping but had left his client, Mrs Dee, alone at the till inside.
The court heard that on September 10th, 1993, two youths in balaclavas entered the station and robbed Mrs Dee, threatening her with a syringe.
In the 48 second raid, which was videoed, the youths escaped, chased by management and staff. Mrs Dee later found blood stains on her blouse and a skin puncture on her shoulder.
Judge Lynch said there had been two incidents before the robbery and this, together with the suspicion that the filling station was a target, was sufficient for management to realise the danger Mrs Dee was in. He held that the attack on her was foreseeable.
"Mrs Dee sustained a very bad fright followed by the worry and concern she might possibly develop AIDS," Judge Lynch said. "She developed what is now accepted as post traumatic stress syndrome but fortunately has put that behind her.