Englishman denies jumping from window after row with girlfriend

An Englishman who has sued a Kinsale hotel, claiming he fell 8m from a third floor bedroom window, yesterday denied in the High Court he had jumped after a row with his girlfriend.

“I am not going to jump out of a window because my partner was pissed off because I ate her starter,” said Jason Platt.

Mr Platt was being cross-examined in the second day of his action over the fall from the window of the Old Bank House, Kinsale, in which he claimed he sustained life-changing injuries.

The 43-year-old has claimed he was flicking ash from a cigarette because he was in a no smoking bedroom when he fell out the window.

Mr Platt, from Liverpool, had travelled to Kinsale for a Valentine’s weekend and he and his partner, Christine McKenna, were staying at the Old Bank House, Pearse St, Kinsale, when he claims the accident took place on February 15, 2009.

The hotel owners have claimed that Mr Platt threw himself from the window following a heated argument with Ms McKenna.

Mr Platt earlier said in evidence said he had opened the right side of the third- floor window and was smoking and “trying to blow smoke so no alarm would go off”.

“I was leaning towards the window trying to flick cigarette ash away from our window when I lost my balance,” he said. “All I remember is just going out the window.”

The court heard Mr Platt landed on the pitched roof of a post office below, and it took a number of hours to free him before he was transferred by ambulance to Cork University Hospital.

Mr Platt suffered fractures to his spine, hip, thigh, and several rib fractures. After three weeks, he was moved to a Liverpool hospital.

Mr Platt has sued OBH Luxury Accommodation Ltd with offices at Pearse St, Kinsale, and company director Ciaran Fitzgerald as a result of the accident in 2009.

He has claimed there was a failure to provide him with a safe hotel room and an alleged failure to have appropriate restraining mechanisms or safety bars fitted to the hotel windows.

Mr Platt says that, as a result of his injuries, he is unable to live independently and has to use crutches and a wheelchair. He also claimed almost €400,000 for loss of employment into the future.

The defendants have denied the claims and contend that Mr Platt threw himself from the window of the guestroom and was guilty of contributory negligence and failed to exercise any care for his own safety.

In court yesterday, counsel for the defendants, John Lucey, put to Mr Platt that Ms McKenna had told gardaí he jumped from the window after they had an argument and that she initially did not go to the hospital with him.