Garden centre pays after seven-year-old is bitten by horse

A 12-YEAR-OLD girl who had her childhood dream of becoming a vet shattered when she had part of her ear bitten off by a horse at a Kidderminster garden centre has been awarded £23,000 in compensation.

Animal lover, Charlotte Lancett, of Birchen Coppice, Kidderminster, was just seven when she was attacked by a horse at Hodge Hill Nurseries and has suffered a phobia of horses ever since, according to her family.

She has been permanently disfigured by the attack and around £7,000 of the compensation the nurseries were ordered to pay by Kidderminster County Court on August 25 was to cover the cost of cosmetic surgery should she decide to have it, according to her solicitor, Tim Beasley.

It was claimed the attack happened when the family went to buy vegetables for a Father's Day Sunday Lunch and Charlotte followed a sign saying "to the animals" with her dad, Paul.

According to Charlotte and her father, she was stroking a horse when it put its head forward and bit a chunk out of her ear.

She was then rushed to Kidderminster Hospital, before being transferred to Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Medical staff there attempted to sew back on the severed portion of the ear, which had been picked up by Mr Lancett and pressed against an ice lolly to keep it cold.

Despite the operation at first being thought a success, however, the damaged part of the ear died and fell off and Charlotte now wears her hair long to help hide it, Mr Beasley said.

He explained it had taken five years for the case to reach court because time had to be given for the healing process to finish.

The pay-out also covers trauma and damage to the ear.

Describing the result as a "very good outcome", Mr Beasley explained the compensation paid to Charlotte - who has a twin sister, Adele, and two other sisters - would be invested by the court until she was 18.

"It was a pretty horrific thing to have part of your ear bitten off and then attempt to sew it back on but not work."

The solicitor, who works for Levenes in Birmingham, added: "Charlotte wears her hair long to help hide the damaged ear and is determined to get over what has been a very traumatic experience for a young girl.

"She has been left with a deformed ear and a phobia of horses but is quite a determined young woman really and remarkably stoical."

Charlotte's 36-year-old mum, Sarah, added: "She is animal crackers but while it might be possible for her to work in a small veterinary practice, she is not going to be able to train without coming into contact with horses."

Mr Beasley, meanwhile, said Charlotte's ordeal was an important lesson for operators of nurseries, garden centres and children's farms - although the law had since been changed so a member of staff must supervise any encounters between members of the public and animals.

"Animals can be unpredictable and an incident like this can be very costly as well as distressing for all concerned," he said.

A spokesman for Hodge Hill Nurseries said everyone at the centre had been upset about what had happened to Charlotte.

"We're very pleased that the little girl is okay and has had compensation for what happened," he said.

"We've had an appraisal done to reduce the chance of something like that happening again," he added.

The compensation settlement was agreed out of court and approved by a district judge sitting at Kidderminster.