PARENTS have welcomed the outcome of a court hearing after their daughter was injured at a ski centre.

Jennifer Hutson, who was five at the time, was using a small ski lift during a lesson when she forgot to get off, grabbed the low-level wire which operated the lift and was pulled upwards.

The youngster, of Crescent Gardens, Swanley, became stuck in the mechanism and was left dangling above the ground.

Onlookers and staff rushed to free her at Bromley Ski Centre and she was rushed to hospital with a flattened' hand.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) stated the accident happened at the centre in Sandy Lane, Orpington, because of a problem with one of the lift's two emergency stop devices.

The second device was positioned too close to the machine's wheel to function properly.

Graham Hutson, 35, and his wife Rachel, 32, took legal action because they wanted to make sure nothing like it happened again.

The couple, who run a computer support company, won the case at Bromley Civil Court on May 22, just less than three years after the accident on May 30, 2003 took place. They received an undisclosed sum.

Mr Hutson said: "It makes me feel better because it is a weight off our minds.

"No other children will have to go through the trauma we have been through. It is a relief."

Bromley Ski Centre admitted liability for the accident before the case came to court.

The HSE issued the centre with a number of health and safety requirements it needed to follow which have now been met.

HSE health and safety inspector Loraine Charles says it would have been impossible for the centre to predict the accident happening.

She said: "They would have had to imagine a little person grabbing on to the wire and not keeping hold of the pole she is supposed to be holding on to and lifting her legs up."

No-one from Bromley Ski Centre was available for comment.