A mum was left paralysed after being “catapulted” from her bed during a sex session, a court heard. Claire Busby is now suing the bed suppliers for seven-figure damages, claiming it happened the bed was “defective”.
The 46-year-old, from Maidenhead, suffered a serious spinal injury when she was launched from the super king-size divan while she shifted her position.
She has launched a High Court case against Berkshire Bed Company, trading as Beds Are Uzzz, which supplied it.
Judge Barry Cotter, sitting in London on Monday, was told the “central issue” in the case is whether there were defects with the bed and whether Ms Busby’s “tragic injuries” were caused or contributed to by them.
The firm denies liability for Ms Busby’s injuries and is contesting the case, arguing the bed was properly assembled.
The court heard the bed was one of five delivered to Ms Busby’s then home, Rosewood House in Ockwells Road, in August 2013 when she was renovating the property.
Ms Busby, who used to work in the property industry, was injured a week after the bed’s delivery while having sex with her partner.
She told the court she was kneeling in the middle of the bed performing a sex act when she decided to move position and “swung her legs” from underneath her, before laying back on the bed.
At that point, she claims, the bed gave way and she toppled off the end, landing on her head.
She said: “I spun around, I put my hand down and then I felt like I was catapulted off the back of the bed. “My head hit the floor, I fell to the side and then I heard like a spring in my body snap, it felt like.”
Her sister, Natalie Busby, told the court that when she went to the property after the accident she noticed there were “two feet” missing from the bed.
She said they did not discuss the matter until much later because Ms Busby was in such poor health.
Her barrister Winston Hunter QC said she expected the mattress to support her weight as she lay back on the bed, but that it failed to and she continued moving “backwards and downwards”.
Lawyers for the bed company argue it was properly assembled at the time of delivery and that, even if the two gliders were missing by the time of the accident, that would not have caused the bed to lose balance in the way suggested by Ms Busby.
The hearing continues.