Two men have been ordered to pay a woman £15,000 ($21,400) in damages after dropping a couch on her from a rooftop.
Barrie Law and Lee Morrison, from Aberdeen, Scotland, pled guilty to culpable and reckless conduct in court in April, after they caused severe injuries to 31-year-old Edita Butkeviciute during the incident in December 2019.
On Monday, Law was ordered to pay Butkeviciute £12,000 in compensation, while Morrison will have to hand over £3,000. They were both sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work and an 18-month supervision order.
Butkeviciute told the court that she lives in pain every day following the incident, and had to have metal plates put in her spine due to the injuries caused.
The men said that they decided to drop the couch from the rooftop of Nailco Nail Bar in Aberdeen, as they could not find another way to get it out of the property, according to STV News.
The court was told that the men checked below to see if anyone was there before dropping the couch from the rooftop, which was located around 16 feet from the ground.
Butkeviciute revealed in court that she has still not been able to return to work, as Sheriff William Summers said Law and Morrison acted with "utter disregard for the consequences."
In a statement released through Digby Brown Solicitors following the sentencing on Monday, Butkeviciute said that despite her injuries she is glad that the two men have not been given prison sentences.
"What happened damaged me and has affected me for life but I don't want those men to sit in jail. It was a stupid thing they did—they know that and they have to live with that.
"But other people in the community have attacked them or isolated them and that is wrong so I don't want to do anything to make matters worse. I just want to focus on my recovery in private and move on with my life the best way I can," the 31-year-old said.
Lawyers for Law and Morrison said the two men regret their actions, while George Mathers, representing the former, told STV News that "this will haunt him for the rest of his life.
"When they saw the woman, he got absolutely the shock of his life. He thought she was dead, he was shaken to the core."
Paul Barnett, a solicitor at George Mathers & Co Solicitors, told Newsweek that Law and Butkeviciute are arranging a meeting so that he can apologize to her in person.
Newsweek has contacted Digby Brown Solicitors, Mathers and Nailco Nail Bar for comment.
