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File photo Shutterstock/Stepanek Photography

Chef awarded €7k after getting electric shock from panini machine

The incident happened at a hotel in 2013.

A 30-YEAR-OLD CHEF who suffered an electric shock while using an allegedly dangerous and defective panini machine in a Dublin hotel has been awarded damages in the Circuit Civil Court.

Keith Gunning, who sued Home Fare Services, trading as Kylemore Services, told the court that in March 2013 he was working at Jurys Inn Hotel on Custom House Quay when he was asked to make a panini.

Gunning said the green indicator light on the panini machine had not been working so he tried to remove the plug. On doing so he said he had received an electric shock which threw him to the ground.

Circuit Court President Justice Raymond Groarke heard that Gunning lost consciousness and was taken by ambulance to the Emergency Department of the Mater Hospital in Dublin.

For two months afterwards he suffered headaches and pain in his right arm, and needed to take time off work for several weeks.

Gunning, of Lissadell Avenue, Drimnagh, Dublin, sued his employer, Home Fare Services, of McKee Avenue, Finglas, Dublin, for negligence. The court heard that Home Fare Services provided catering for the hotel.

Negligent 

The chef claimed that the plug had been defective and the machine constituted a trap.

The court heard that Home Fare Services admitted liability but alleged Gunning had been guilty of contributory negligence. It claimed that he should have turned off the socket switch before trying to unplug the machine.

Judge Groarke said he was satisfied, after hearing the evidence of forensic engineer Karl Searson, that the plug had been defective although nothing, when the plug was in the socket, could have alerted Gunning to this fact.

The judge found Home Fare Services had an unsafe system of work as it had failed to identify and warn that the machine was defective and dangerous.

Judge Groarke said he did not find Gunning guilty of contributory negligence and he awarded him €7,000 damages along with District Court costs and a Certificate for Counsel.

Read: Judge denies liquor licence, says there are enough pubs in Temple Bar

Read: Teen wins €2,500 damages from Luas operator after driver insinuated she was a pickpocket

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    Mute Ally O'Rourke
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    Oct 27th 2015, 3:58 PM

    Dear sweet lord Jesus, who even has time to go arund looking for things to be pisssed off about? Would most normal people look twice at the gap in the babies nappy? What a totally stupid woman.

    420
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    Mute Malcolm McCarthy
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:02 PM

    ally I have to share your sentiment

    125
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    Mute stephen
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:17 PM

    New level of creepiness.

    341
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    Mute Ronan Mac Gearailt
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    Oct 27th 2015, 6:43 PM

    A decisive response to the issue ” Does my bum look big in this?”

    30
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    Mute Stephen
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:05 PM

    Why bother running an article about something that isn’t really news at all since the claims of the individual in question were refuted by the manufacturer and the “experts” over on reddit couldn’t come to a conclusion on it.

    I personally find it a bit more strange that a person would spend that much time looking for something to be offended by.

    164
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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:26 PM

    Did you know: 60,000 migrants entered Slovenia last week.

    139
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    Mute Stephen
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:38 PM

    I did actually but I didn’t find out from any Irish media outlet.

    Strange how there seems to be no more coverage of the statistics of the migrant crisis or the important events happening around Europe as a result of the “migrants”.

    Its almost like the Irish media don’t want people to know what is happening.

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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:40 PM

    There’s definitely a wall of silence in terms of reporting. If you were to go by the journal you’d swear the migrant crisis was all wrapped up.

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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:44 PM
    22
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    Mute Chris Maynard
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    Oct 27th 2015, 5:10 PM

    omg you didn’t just post an article from breitbart! you do realise 99.9% of the tripe they claim is ultra conservative right-wing american propaganda, right? the guy who runs the thing is a tea-party nut job who’s been cited more than once for publicly using racist, homophobic, and islamophobic hate speech.

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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 27th 2015, 5:12 PM

    is the article incorrect in some way?

    26
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    Mute Chris Maynard
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    Oct 27th 2015, 5:21 PM

    i would never bother reading something from that website. that’s like asking someone to actually listen to an alex jones radio show with a straight face and an open mind, or telling me that i should take something fox news is reporting seriously. can’t be done when you know it’s a crock of shite from the word “go”.

    19
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    Mute Chris Maynard
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    Oct 27th 2015, 5:21 PM

    and maybe if you started googling refugee crisis instead of calling those poor people migrants, you’d have better luck getting around your “wall of silence”

    18
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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 27th 2015, 5:30 PM

    If you’ve not read it you can’t comment on its veracity. Also, you seem to infer that a right wing news source is somehow less trustworthy than a left wing news source (hello, journal). Breitbart UK, has a number of writers, its not logical to assume that they 100% agree with everything their american owner believes. It does seem odd that there are multiple reports every day on the likes of Breitbart but nothing here, so yeah, wall of silence. I find that, breitbart , doesn’t blame migrants for coming, they do squarely blame Merkel though, however, they do strongly highlight the negative impacts of the migrant crisis. I’ll personally stick with migrant crisis as the majority are that, according to fullfact.org.

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    Mute Chris Maynard
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    Oct 27th 2015, 5:36 PM

    clearly you’re not googling hard enough. here, let me do that for you http://bfy.tw/2Ukw

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    Mute Uncle Denise
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    Oct 27th 2015, 5:59 PM

    I do now, and I read it here on the journal. In an article about baby’s thighs. I wouldn’t have read that on reddit.

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    Mute Stephen
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    Oct 27th 2015, 6:14 PM

    Breitbart London is literally just the polar opposite of The Guardian. I would take both publications with a pinch of salt, however it is up to you ,the reader, to check the sources and statistics within those articles and verify their authenticity.

    Mindlessly crying “oh my Breitbart!! I would never read that because I don’t agree with the opinion pieces!” is a rather disingenuous position to take. The content of the articles still have to match up to scrutiny. I will say the UK version of it isn’t anywhere nearly as bad as the US one.

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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 27th 2015, 6:17 PM
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    Mute Niall O' Sullivan
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:15 PM

    “A US BABYCARE company stands accused today of digitally manipulating a ‘thigh gap’ onto a toddler for an advertising campaign.”

    OH NOOOO!!!

    Fcuk of will ya.

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:36 PM

    Oh man I love the gap between those emaciated stumps that can barely hold her body weight up and the way those size zero knickers hang of her exposed pelvic bone- SAID NO MAN EVER

    Women set these standards and expectations themselves. It’s not feminist, sexist or oppressed by the standards of the opposite sex in the slightest.

    39
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    Mute Carol C.
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    Oct 27th 2015, 11:18 PM

    You’re either a troll or you know absolutely nothing about this subject. You’d be best staying away from the keyboard. The funny thing is you, a man (or male at least), have just mocked thin women. Yet you blame women for setting those standards. The responsibility for encouraging healthy self esteem and body image falls on *people*, not on one particular gender. Think before you type, mate.

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    Mute Lennie
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:42 PM

    Did you know there was a coup in Portugal last week?. You would never know as nonsensical stories such as this one get covered instead.

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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:46 PM

    why write much about that when there’s thigh gaps and the worlds longest baguette to dedicate time to?

    30
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    Mute Mick Kenny
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:09 PM

    not the first time a huggies campaign, a few years ago they insulted thousands of dads but portraying use as incompetent idiots. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2012/03/huggies-pulls-ads-after-dads-insulted/

    23
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    Mute Ariana
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:36 PM

    Some people have thigh gaps, deal with it.

    12
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    Mute Supernova
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:40 PM

    Thigh gaps, no gaps? Who the f@xk cares

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Oct 27th 2015, 7:32 PM

    Plant a hedge then?

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    Mute Alan Lawlor
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:52 PM

    Mind the Gap

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    Mute Supernova
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    Oct 27th 2015, 5:00 PM

    I don’t understand why women are fascinated with thigh gaps and stuff, we men couldn’t care less.. Ain’t nothing wrong with thick thighs ;) lol

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Oct 27th 2015, 7:31 PM

    Unless the nappy was full like Stewie’s??? lol.

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    Mute Peter Buchanan
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    Oct 27th 2015, 5:01 PM

    So what…..

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    Mute Rasputin
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:19 PM

    ..

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    Mute Rasputin
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    Oct 27th 2015, 4:07 PM

    1
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