Tennis coach had nose broken by head-butt from man at Cork city bar who took exception to his shirt

A tennis coach wearing a Rory McIlroy golf shirt on a night out at Rearden’s in Cork was head-butted and had his nose broken by a Clare man on a stag night who took exception to the shirt.

The incident dated back to September 21 2014. Since then Tom Boland, a middle-aged man from Dunlickey Road, Kilkee, County Clare, was convicted of assault causing harm to Jaco Oosthuysen of Clonmel, County Tipperary, and he paid €2,000 compensation to the injured party.

Now at Cork Circuit Court, Mr Ooosthuysen has brought a civil case for compensation against Tom Boland and against the owners of Rearden’s on Washington Street.

Most of the evidence in the case heard by Judge James O’Donohoe concerned the level of security at the club.

The judge wondered how the wearing of a shirt in the style of one worn by Rory McIlroy could have caused that reaction. The judge was told that the defendant appeared to take exception to the shirt at the time but no reason was given for his problem with it.

The plaintiff’s barrister, Cliona Cleary, said, “There should have been bouncers. 

"There were no bouncers in the bar area whatsoever. It takes some time before bouncers from outside arrived. Having bouncers is like guards being in an area – they are there to act as a deterrent.” 

Defence barrister David Fleming said, the plaintiff’s own proceedings stated that, “Mr Boland suddenly and without any prior warning assaulted him. This was an instantaneous assault, a moment of madness by the first named defendant (Tom Boland).

“The whole assault is over in less than two seconds. There is a head-butt. There is nothing anyone can do (in terms of security) if someone has a moment of madness.” 

Judge O’Donohoe said after hearing the evidence and seeing CCTV of the assault that there was no difficulty finding liability against the man who carried out the assault. However, the plaintiff’s barrister had suggested that this defendant might not have the means to pay any substantial award and that €2,000 was as much as he had ever paid the injured party.

Moving on to the main part of the case – whether the venue had any liability – the judge said, “Unfortunately, this is one of the bad sides of my occupation… It was a head-butting incident – a horrible despicable incident – so instantaneous it is hard to imagine what a defendant operating the premises could have done to prevent a head-butting occurring.

“It seems this is a totally out of the blue incident. I don’t think the proprietor or security company could have done anything to prevent it.” 

The judge dismissed the action against Rearden’s and awarded them their costs.

Judge O’Donohoe assessed damages at €45,000 and made that finding against Tom Boland for carrying out the assault eight years ago. The judge said the €2,000 compensation paid previously could be taken into consideration. 

Regarding Mr Boland, the judge said, “I did not hear any apology offered.” His barrister Pat Purcell said during the case that Tom Boland was contrite about what happened and had appeared in Cork Circuit Court for the civil case. 

“He did wrong and he is here to hold up his hands,” Mr Purcell BL said.

The plaintiff Mr Oosthuysen is a tennis coach and said he also has a degree in aviation technology. He said the assault did affect him afterwards in terms of breathing easily through his nose. He said that before the assault, “Myself and my girlfriend were Number 1 in the country in mixed doubles.” 

He also said he was hoping at the time to qualify to represent Ireland in javelin at the Rio Olympics but narrowly failed to qualify.