MOTHER Elaine Armstrong was left wheelchair-bound after she slipped on what is believed to have been a McDonald's Egg McMuffin.

The former youth training instructor claims her life was ruined after her fall at a shopping centre in Hartlepool five years ago.

Now she is expected to receive compensation after details of her ordeal were heard before a judge at a civil hearing at Teesside Crown Court, Middlesbrough.

Mrs Armstrong, 43, of Lingdale Drive, Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, slipped on the food and fell in the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre in September 1995.

She sustained a complicated fracture of her left leg. After an infection set in, she underwent four operations and has been left needing more. She is now confined to a wheelchair.

She sued the then owner of the shopping complex, Waxy Holdings, for negligence, saying the food should have been removed by cleaners.

Judge Charles Walton agreed that the company was liable. He said the fall had had "catastrophic consequences" for Mrs Armstrong.

The judge said he was satisfied that, because of the closeness to the acident scene of the McDonald's takeaway, the food was probably an Egg McMuffin.

He ordered that Waxy (Hartlepool) Limited pay £5,000 towards Mrs Armstrong costs.

No one was available for comment at the company yesterday