Horror as underwear-clad bride plunges 25ft from resort window on wedding ceremony evening
Jackie Sexton had gone back to her hotel room with her new husband and was sitting on the windowsill in her underwear before plummetting 25ft at Deebert House Hotel in Co Limerick
A bride who plunged 25ft out of a hotel window on her wedding night has relived her horror ordeal. Jackie Sexton said the last thing she remembered was sitting on the windowsill in her underwear while smoking a cigarette before waking up in hospital.
When her husband returned to the room, he found her on snow-covered concrete below with multiple injuries. Mrs Sexton took Deebert House Hotel Ltd, Kilmallock, Co Limeric to the High Court over the incident, which happened in February 2020, Cork Beo reports.
The hotel denied any responsibility for the fall and vehemently contested the claim, arguing that they had properly installed restrictors on the hotel windows in 2014 and were fully compliant with building standards.
But the mother-of-two, accused the hotel of negligence and breach of duty for failing to ensure her safety in the hotel room. The court was told that she and her husband returned to the hotel from their wedding reception, held at a different venue, around 3.30am and went to room 217.
She said she had consumed a significant amount of alcohol on her wedding day and the last memory she had of the night was sitting in her underwear on the window sill with her feet resting on the table.
The 37-year-old of Croom, Co Limerick, said she was smoking a cigarette at the window when she fell. The next thing she remembered was waking up in Limerick University Hospital the next day with a morphine clicker, she said. She only discovered what had happened when her husband, Christopher, explained it to her.
Senior counsel, Mr Barney Quirke told the court in his opening speech that Mr Sexton returned from the bathroom to the bedroom where there was no sign of his wife and the window was open.
Mr Sexton went into a panic and though he could not see his wife from the window he could hear “moaning or groaning” from the paving area below.
Counsel submitted that Ms Sexton plunged from a height onto snowy, wet concrete and that the area where she fell was restricted and it took some time to reach her.
She had sustained multiple fractures to her ribs, injury to her back, right leg, hip, pelvic bone, a kidney infraction and a collapsed lung.
Her lawyers submitted that “the wedding weekend was destroyed as a result of the accident”.
Mrs Sexton told the court she had been an active person, who enjoyed walking and swimming, had a jockey licence since her teens and had qualified in horsemanship.
She had worked in hospitality, at the local Spar shop and in medical device production before the fall, jobs which, she said, she can no longer do due to the ongoing back and leg pain.
Mrs Sexton described her “painful and scary” journey towards regaining mobility – which took place during Covid – as involving initial surgery, the use of a cervical collar, a spinal brace, a wheelchair, crutches, physiotherapy and potent medication.
On Friday (December 6) while Aidan Doyle SC, representing the hotel, was set to continue cross-examining Ms Sexton, the plaintiff’s team informed Ms Justice Denis Brett that both parties were in discussions with the aim of reaching a settlement.
The case has now been settled.
