A JUDGE TODAY awarded former Mixed Martial Arts fighter Charlie Ward $50,000 (€44,000) for a US fight purse he lost because of injuries he suffered when a garda pursuit vehicle crashed into his car five years ago.

Judge Sinéad Ní Chulacháin added another €12,000 for neck and head injuries Ward suffered in the collision with the garda patrol car which had crashed red lights on Long Mile Road, Dublin, to follow a motorist who had just broken the red light signal ahead of it.

Ward (45) of Acragar, Mountmellick, County Laois, had sued the Garda Commissioner for €60,000 damages arising from the crash which, his barrister Conor Kearney stated, had cost him at least $50,000 (€44,000) in lost earnings.

Mr Kearney, who appeared with Aisling Woods of Michael Kelleher Solicitors, told Judge Ni Chulachain he had won only one fight and lost three following the crash and before his retirement several years ago.

Judge Ni Chulachain said liability had been conceded by the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, and she was taking into consideration a reduction in damages for contributory negligence due to Ward having admitted travelling in a bus lane before the accident.

She said he had lost $50,000 (€44,000) for having to pull out of a contract to fight in the United States shortly after the accident and was entitled to be compensated for that.

Ward told the court that following the accident he had never been able to fight to the level he had been able to when he was rated in the top 10 in the world at his fighting weight.

Barrister Fred Gilligan, who appeared with Karina Tkachenko of Mason Hayes Curran Solicitors for the garda commissioner, told the court the accident would most likely never have happened if Ward had not been illegally driving in the bus lane at the time.

Ward admitted in cross-examination by Mr Gilligan that he should not have been driving in the bus lane.

Leading Irish MMA trainer John Kavanagh, who schooled Ward among 50 other MMA fighters at his Longmile Road gym, told Judge Ni Chulachain that, absent the crash injuries, Ward could potentially have progressed in stages of $50,000 (€44,000) to purses as high as $500,000 (€438,000).

“He could not train or perform to the level he used to following the accident,” Mr Kavanagh said.

On 9 April 2016 Ward defeated, on a technical knockout, Portuguese MMA fighter Joao Carvolho in a Dublin contest. Tragically Carvolho died in Beaumont Hospital two days later following emergency brain surgery.