Comic 'vindicated' over pier fall

Jim Davidson has won his court case against a woman who claimed she was hurt in a fall on a pier he was running.

Teacher Mary Kyne, 52, said she fell on wet grass growing between uneven paving stones at Wellington Pier in Great Yarmouth four years ago.

She said it was a "life shattering experience" and had been unable to return to work.

But yesterday she lost her claim for damages, which Davidson reckoned could have topped £500,000, at Norwich County Court.

Judge Patrick O'Brien said she had failed to establish the cause of the accident and failed to prove that the pier was badly lit.

Davidson, 49, said: "I feel completely vindicated. Justice has been done and seen to have been done."

Mr Davidson was leasing the complex when the accident happened, but no longer runs it.

He employed a former bricklayer as operations manager and the employee in charge of rewiring was a man he knew only as 'Jacko'.

But he told the court: "It was an efficient team and a caring team."

Published: 18 Oct 2003