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A judge has blasted a claim for damages as "compensation culture gone mad" after a case was filed by a young girl injured after her finger got trapped in a restaurant's sugar dispenser.

The case was taken after Robyn Behan, who was almost three years old at the time, got her finger stuck in an 8mm hole in the dispenser in an Eddie Rockets restaurant in Blanchardstown, Dublin, in September 2011.

She sued the chain through her mother Vanessa, of North Brunswick St, Dublin.

The case was earlier heard in the Circuit Court but was appealed in the High Court yesterday.

The court heard how staff failed to release Robyn's finger using soap and other lubricants and she was eventually taken to Temple Street Children's Hospital where they had to cut the metal lid.

After hearing the details of the case President of the High Court Judge Nicholas Kearns said: "Quite frankly, this is another case of compensation culture gone mad concerning an extraordinary suggestion that the restaurant should have warned Robyn's mother when she was being shown to a table that the sugar dispenser had a risk associated with it."

He awarded costs of the case against Ms Behan.