A woman who broke her back falling from a sports centre bouldering wall has had her hopes of a £300,000 compensation payout dashed.

Emma Jane Maylin spent two weeks in hospital after plunging 14 feet when she came to grief.

She sued the Dacorum Sports Trust, which runs the XC climbing and skate park, in Hemel Hempstead, but today had her claim rejected by Judge Martin McKenna.

The 29-year-old, who was on her third date, landed on her backside after falling from the wall on January 11 2014, London’s High Court heard.

The former coroner’s officer, who lives in Devon Road, fractured a disc in her back and spent two weeks in hospital.

Miss Maylin was "patently an honest witness" but she could not blame for the trust for the accident that blighted her life.

She has ongoing problems, with tasks such as driving, exercise and wearing high heels proving difficult.

It was the first time she had tried bouldering and she told the court she believed crash mats at the bottom of the wall would break her fall.

Her legal team claimed the XC should have supervised her, or at least given her a safety briefing, before letting her loose on the wall.

Dismissing her claim, however, Judge McKenna told the court that the danger of falling from the wall was "plainly obvious".

Miss Maylin had signed a disclaimer which stated that she understood that bouldering could result in injury or death.

Her date was there to act as her climbing "buddy", the judge added.

And there were at least two notices at the centre warning that the crash mats did not make bouldering any safer.

The notices, which were "there to be seen", warned that broken or sprained limbs were commonplace.

There was no duty on the trust to warn against the "obvious and inherent risk" of bouldering, he said.

And, even had there been such an obligation, the trust "did in fact take sufficient steps to draw Miss Maylin's attention to the risks".

It was "equally plain that no amount of matting could absolutely avoid the risk of even serious injury from an awkward fall."

Miss Maylin was not in court to hear the judge conclude: "For the reasons set out I would dismiss this claim".