Boy gets €15k after leg impaled on tree at zoo

A 13-year-old schoolboy, whose left leg was impaled on a tree stump in Dublin Zoo, has been awarded €15,500 damages in the Circuit Civil Court.

Barrister William John Kelly told the court that in November 2011, Sam Conway Thornton had been walking with his mother, Gemma Conway, and his aunt, Georgia Conway, close to the Reptile House when the accident happened.

Sam, who was aged 10 at the time, had tripped over a loose cable and had fallen on a sharp, low-cut tree stump sticking out of the ground and which had, allegedly, recently been pruned.