Settlement of €16k agreed in case of child locked in hotel creche

A judge has approved a €16,000 personal injuries settlement to a five-year-old child, accidentally trapped for half an hour in a Co Carlow hotel creche.

Barrister Eamon Shanahan related the experience of Chloe O’Donovan to Judge John O’Connor in the Circuit Civil Court on Friday. He said she had been unintentionally locked up alone in the Mount Wolseley Hotel’s Kids Club in Tullow, Co Carlow.

Mr Shanahan, who appeared with O’Shea O’Neill Solicitors, Ballinlough, Cork, for Chloe and her mother, Brenda Griffin, said she had tried to get herself out and failed and had suffered upset and distress.

Ms Griffin, of Manor Mills, Rathcormac, Co Cork, told Judge O’Connor in a statement outlining what happened, that her family had been staying in the Mount Wolseley in July, 2017 when the unfortunate incident occurred.

She said her then five-year-old daughter, Chloe, who is now aged nine, had been playing in the hotel’s creche, known as the Kids Club, and had been locked in the room on her own for approximately half an hour.

“After I collected her from the Kids Club she did not speak for about an hour but gradually described what had occurred and how she had tried to leave the room and had started crying when she found she could not do so,” Ms Griffin said.

Mr Shanahan said Chloe’s parents noted a change in her behaviour afterwards, becoming more dependent particularly on her mother. She would become anxious if left alone even for a brief period and had suffered intermittent nightmares for a short period after the incident.

He said the family had decided not to put Chloe through potentially further tension or distress by having her receive formal treatment and her parents had quite appropriately decided to treat her sensitively at home with love and care.

“Chloe made a full recovery and I am recommending the proffered settlement to the court,” Mr Shanahan said.

Judge O’Connor, approving the €16,000 settlement and awarding Circuit Court costs, said it had been a harrowing experience for a child so young.

Chloe, through her mother, had sued Mount Wolseley Hospitality Limited for wrongful imprisonment and negligence.