A former soldier turned gold medal-winning para athlete who sued for £1.7million after falling off her army horse has been accused of being ‘fundamentally dishonest’ by a judge.

Debbie O’Connell sued the Ministry of Defence after claiming she fell off the horse because her boots were too big.

The 37-year-old was part of the Royal Horse Artillery’s crack squadron, the King’s Troop, when she fell from a bucking parade horse in 2015, breaking her collarbone and claiming her left arm was rendered virtually useless.

She was training as a mounted gunner with the Royal Horse Artillery’s crack squadron, the King’s Troop, but ended up being discharged from the forces two years later.

She quit the army due to her injury, but went on to forge a successful career in para athletics, winning gold medals for cycling at the Invictus Games in 2018, sprinting at European and world level, and becoming a leading CrossFit competitor.

In 2018, she launched a £2.4m compensation claim against the MoD – later reduced to £1.74m – claiming that she fell because she was given riding boots two sizes too big and put on a horse which had a tendency to buck and throw riders.

She claimed she had little function in her left arm and needed major assistance with everyday tasks, with London’s High Court hearing evidence that her granny even helped her clean her teeth by putting the toothpaste on the brush.

But she was accused of exaggerating her symptoms after secret video footage showed her using her injured arm while mucking out and leading horses, driving a manual transmission horse box and chopping carrots to feed to the animals.

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Debbie O’Connell, 37, sued the Ministry of Defence after claiming she fell off the horse because her boots were too big

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Debbie O’Connell pictured competing in the Women’s 1500m IT7 during the Athletics at the 2018 Invictus Games in Sydney, Australia

Now High Court Judge Christopher Kennedy KC has ruled that despite claiming her left arm effectively doesn’t work and having competed as a T46 category para athlete, she in fact by 2022 had ‘normal or near normal’ function in her arm.

The T46 class in para athletics is for competitors with limb impairments comparable with an ‘athlete with a unilateral above elbow amputation’.

‘It was put to the claimant that she presented on the surveillance as not disabled at all. She denied that,’ said the judge.

But he went on to find that the 2022 surveillance video of her working with the horses shows ‘someone with normal or near normal function in their left upper limb and shoulder.

‘That is what I find the claimant had at that time. I do not accept her accounts of continuing pain and hypersensitivity. I find her evidence in relation to her symptoms must be dishonest,’ he said.

Throwing out her claim, he also found that her boots had indeed been ‘oversized,’ but that they did not contribute to or cause her accident.

During the trial of the case, the court heard Ms O’Connell shattered her left collarbone in four places when she fell in 2015, leading to damage she claimed left her with chronic pain in her left arm and shoulder.

She had been training as a mounted gunner with the Royal Horse Artillery’s crack squadron, the King’s Troop, but ended up being discharged from the forces two years later.

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O’Connell has competed in the T46 class in para athletics –  for competitors with limb impairments comparable with an ‘athlete with a unilateral above elbow amputation’.

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Debbie O’Connell at the Road Cycling Time Trials event at the Invictus Games, in Sydney

The King’s Troop is a ceremonial unit of the Royal Horse Artillery, tasked with driving teams of six horses pulling First World War era cannons during high-profile public displays.

Troopers wear a distinctive blue and gold uniform dating back to the Napoleonic wars and are called on to fire the royal salutes marking grand-scale state occasions, such as the Queen’s birthday and platinum jubilee.

Fighting the claim, the MoD accused Ms O’Connell of ‘fundamental dishonesty’ in exaggerating the impact of her injuries to boost her case, while ‘dishonestly’ pursuing a para athletics career in a category she ‘does not fall within.’

MoD barrister Niazi Fetto KC said she ‘has relied upon her dishonest pursuit of a para-athletics career in the knowledge that her condition does not fall within the T46 category.’

Giving evidence, Ms O’Connor, of Lincoln, denied being dishonest, insisting that her damages claim was genuine and that allegations of ‘cheating’ are ‘not credible’ because she fits squarely into the T46 classification.

She told the court she had simply ‘described my condition’ when asked and been given the classification.

As a soldier, she said she had been taught to ‘push through pain’ and, in pursuing her athletics career, is simply doing her best to make the most of her life, despite her injury.

She competed in the Invictus Games in 2018, winning two gold and two silver medals, before also competing in para athletics as a sprinter and also in CrossFit, which tests the fitness and endurance of athletes.

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Ms O’Connell also went on to become a leading CrossFit competitor after she was discharged from the army

Judge Kennedy said that by 2022 when the surveillance footage was shot Ms O’Connell was still reporting that she ‘needed assistance with cutting food and preparing hot drinks along with aspects of bathing and dressing/undressing. She reported that her pain remained the same as before and it restricted her daily activities’.

He said: ‘The claimant’s case is that she has recovered orthopaedically but been left with neuropathic pain, weakness, restriction of movement and hypersensitivity,’ adding that he had ‘heard evidence about the claimant’s disability and restrictions from her grandmother, Maureen O’Connell.

‘She provided a great deal of assistance to her adult granddaughter, such as putting toothpaste on her toothbrush, whether or not that assistance was needed or even sought.’

But the footage showed a different picture, with the former soldier being filmed ‘carrying both small and bulky items using her left hand’, appearing ‘to use both hands when trying to lead a reluctant horse into the horsebox and to use her left arm when manoeuvring herself over the partition in the horsebox.

‘She was still using her left arm to load items into her own car boot once her work with the horses was finished.’

The next day she was filmed as she ‘used both her arms to pull a load on a trolley. At one stage, and briefly, she used the left arm alone. She used a rake in one hand and a shovel in the other to undertake poo-picking.

She held a large bin open with her left hand and used her left hand to cut a carrot for her horses,’ the judge said.

He went on: ‘The defendant’s case is that the claimant has recovered to the extent that she can use her arm normally or near normally [and that] her representations as to the extent of her disability since then have been dishonest. Reliance is placed on surveillance evidence.

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She was training as a mounted gunner with the Royal Horse Artillery’s crack squadron, the King’s Troop, but ended up being discharged from the forces two years later

‘The claimant’s case is that she is honestly presenting her claim.

‘[But] the claimant’s presentation on the video is of someone with normal or near normal function in their left upper limb and shoulder. That is what I find the claimant had at that time. I do not accept her accounts of continuing pain and hypersensitivity. I find her evidence in relation to her symptoms must be dishonest.

‘The claimant has shown herself to be a resilient individual. She had started out on her cherished career and was deprived of it by a fall which would not normally have had such serious consequences. She was unlucky.

‘Having lost her career and at a time when she was still significantly restricted, the claimant proactively sought and found employment.

‘The claimant has shown herself to be motivated particularly in pursuit of athletic success but also in other areas.

‘The evidence shows that, for some time after it occurred, the accident had serious disabling consequences for the claimant.

‘Notwithstanding the matters set out above, I am afraid that my conclusion is that the evidence that the claimant has been dishonest is overwhelming.

‘The differences between what the claimant told the… experts who examined her and what she can be seen doing are stark.

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She was accused of exaggerating her symptoms after secret video footage showed her using her injured arm while mucking out and leading horses

‘This is a claim which I have found to be fundamentally dishonest. The claimant has persisted with her dishonesty over a long period. She has sought to engage others and her attempts to conceal the truth have been sophisticated. It is I find an appropriate case in which to grant permission to the defendant to enforce any order for costs it may obtain against her to its full extent’.

The finding means that even had she brought a valid claim against the MoD it would have been dismissed, and that she is now likely to face a massive bill for the costs of the case.

However the judge went on to find that her claim would have failed in any case.

On the point about her boots being too big, he said: ‘I find that the claimant’s boots were over-sized. I have gone on to consider whether the size of the claimant’s boots or her stirrup position played a role in her fall from [the horse]. I find that neither did.’

Dismissing the claim that the horse was dangerous, he said the animal had been ‘a suitable horse for a novice rider such as the claimant.’

He also dismissed the claim that a serious injury had been foreseeable, ruling instead that Ms O’Connell had simply been ‘unfortunate’ in falling and hurting herself so badly.