An 18-year-old student, who claimed he had been assaulted and seriously injured by security men when he was "thrown out" of a Gala Freshers Ball at University College Dublin, has lost his £30,000 damages claim against the university and the security firm it employed.
Mr Damien Dillon, of Kentstown, Navan, Co Meath, told Dublin Circuit Civil Court yesterday he had made his way to the perimeter of the crowd when "moshing" by fans of the Whipping Boys group started getting "a bit rough".
He said the moshing, uninhibited and often frenzied activity near the stage at a rock concert, was getting out of hand and he had gone to stand by the fire exit when "a security guard without warning grabbed me and threw me out".
Mr Dillon, who is now 22, told Judge Liam Devally he had persisted at the October 1997 concert with unsuccessful attempts to regain entrance simply by protesting his innocence of any wrongdoing.
He told his counsel, Mr Conor Bowman, that when security men put him in a van to take him off the campus he had spat on the floor in disgust. They had brought him to the Stillorgan entrance and carried him by his arms and legs from the van, leaving him down outside the gates. When he had told a security man he was not going away he had been punched in the mouth.
Judge Devally, in his judgment, told Mr Michael Byrne, counsel for UCD, Mr Dillon had admitted to having had five or six drinks, and after having been tackled and brought down by chasing security men they had forcibly held him down before bringing him to the Garda station.
Judge Devally said Mr Dillon had failed to prove his case and he dismissed the claim, awarding costs against him.