A pensioner is suing the travel company Marella Cruises Ltd for up to £50,000, after falling down stairs on one its luxury liners. Marian Reinelt from Poole in Dorset was celebrating her 75th birthday with a trip on a luxury 13-deck liner, the Marella Explorer, off the coast of Greece in May 2023.

As she was coming down stairs into the ship's Broadway-style auditorium to watch an after-dinner show, the pensioner slipped and hurt herself badly. She suffered cuts to her face and arm in the fall, which were treated onboard. Afterwards she was taken to a hospital in Athens, where doctors took skin grafts from her thigh to repair a "substantial" wound to her right shin, leaving her with lifelong scars.

However, Marella Cruises Ltd has denied any liability, claiming Mrs Reinelt fell because she was wearing "inappropriately high-heeled shoes."

Mrs Reinelt had booked the seven-night island-hopping tour with her husband, daughter and son-in-law to celebrate her 75th birthday and 55th wedding anniversary, according to High Court documents.

Her barrister, Thomas Yarrow, told the court: "On the evening of 28 May 2023, being the second full day of the cruise, the claimant and her family went to dinner.

"Afterwards they decided to watch a show in the vessel’s theatre.

"The claimant was descending the stairs within the auditorium of the theatre in order to find seating when suddenly and without warning she caught her foot against the raised edge of the metallic stair nosing, which unbeknownst to the claimant was in a state of disrepair.

"This defect in the staircase caused the claimant to lose her footing and fall down a number of steps, causing her to sustain injuries."

He added: "The claimant has been left with permanent scarring to all sites of injury, as well as to her left thigh from whence skin grafts were taken.

"The scarring to her left leg in particular is obvious at conversational distance and represents a very significant cosmetic deformity.

"The scarring cannot be improved by surgical or non-surgical treatment."

Mrs Reinelt is suing the company on the basis that it is "strictly liable for the injury sustained by the claimant, which was caused by broken stair nosing within the fabric of the vessel."

Tom Collins, barrister for Marella Cruises Ltd, denied the company is strictly liable under maritime law for an accident that could happen on land, or that the steps were defective.

And he said she had contributed to the fall herself by wearing "inappropriately high-heeled shoes" and not paying proper attention to what she was doing.