Woman sues OPW over ankle injury in Castletown House

A woman who claims she broke her ankle when she stepped into a hole in a public park has sued the Office of Public Works over the incident.

Sally Lothian (60), St Patrick's Park, Celbridge, Co Kildare, says she spent 11 days in hospital as a result of three breaks to her right ankle in the incident which occurred while she was out for a walk with her husband and their dog in Castletown House, Celbridge.

The property is a former country house and estate now open to the public and maintained by the OPW.

She claims the OPW was negligent in failing to ensure her safety by failing to cordon off an area where work on putting in a path and trimming back trees had been going on.

The OPW denies her claims and says work on the path did not take place until a week after the incident. It denies there was a hole and also pleads, even if there was, it could have been dug by an animal.

The OPW also pleads it cannot be expected to provide people with protection in a parkland which it maintains as a natural habitat rather than a manicured park.

Ms Lothian, a supermarket operative, said she regularly walked her dog in the area where the accident happened and the hole had not been there before. The area she had walked on had clearly been disturbed, she said.

Under cross examination, she said she doubted the hole could have been dug by an animal.

She also denied her foot went from a higher piece of ground into a lower area and that caused the accident.

The case resumes next week before Mr Justice Anthony Barr.