A husband and wife claimed in court yesterday they had been viciously assaulted by bouncers at a nightclub just because they had danced together on a raised podium.
Aer Lingus air steward Ms Niamh Mellows told the Circuit Civil Court her husband had been punched and dragged face-down across the dance floor before bouncers held him down outside and took turns at kicking him.
Ms Mellows (26) and her husband, Christopher (28), Forge Court, St Mary's Road, Howth, Co Dublin, said the assaults took place in Club M at Blooms Hotel, Temple Bar. They had gone there on April 4th, 2001, after having dinner out together.
Mr Mellows, a technical analyst, told Circuit Court president Mr Justice Esmond Smyth that his wife had got up on a podium to dance. When he joined her, a bouncer told him only one person could dance on the podium so he got down.
Later, he saw two girls dancing together on another podium so he got up on the podium again with his wife. He was taken down by a bouncer who punched him in the face and knocked him over.
Ms Mellows said her husband was then dragged face-down across the floor and kicked through exit doors. She pleaded to be allowed to join him to recover their cloakroom tickets and, as she passed through the doors, they were slammed shut on her arm and shoulder.
She told Mr Colm P. Condon, counsel for the night club, that her husband had been punched for no reason. Outside, two bouncers had held him down while others kicked him. They had taken turns.
Ms Mellows denied that the only violent struggles to take place had been outside when her husband "charged" the doors.
Club M denied the assaults and claimed Mr Mellows had acted in an aggressive and abusive manner. The club claimed Ms Mellows's injuries had been caused as a result of her husband's "aggressive, provocative and dangerous manner".
Mr John Nolan, counsel for Mr and Mrs Mellows, told Judge Smyth their separate claims of €38,000 damages each had been settled for an undisclosed sum and could be struck out.