A judge yesterday reassured a 10-year-old girl who suffered severe burns to her face when a bowl of hot soup was spilt over her in a restaurant that she was 'very pretty' and had a 'lovely little smile'. Mr Justice Conrad Seagroatt made the reassuring comments as he examined the extent of the girl's injuries before awarding her $240,051 damages. Before looking at the girl, who cannot be named, Mr Justice Seagroatt took off his wig so as not to scare her and stepped down from his seat in the Court of First Instance. The girl - who wore her hair swept back off her face in a pony-tail bound with a bright pink hair-tie - smiled shyly and grasped her father's hand as she showed him her facial scars. Mr Justice Seagroatt asked if she preferred playing games to doing her schoolwork. She nodded slowly. He then laughed and said she was 'just like my little girl'. 'The marks are disappearing very quickly and you must not worry about them,' he told her. 'A lot of people have had worse marks and you are a very pretty girl and they [the marks] don't matter.' After returning to his seat, he said: 'She is a pretty girl with a lovely little smile and whatever scarring remains . . . which is essentially pigmentation, it will lessen in time.' The court heard that the accident happened during a family meal at the Thai Viet Restaurant in Nam Ning Street, Aberdeen, on April 10, 1999. The girl was only eight when two waitresses collided near the kitchen door spilling a bowl of dumpling soup over her face, her shoulder and back. She spent 20 days in hospital and although a plastic surgeon had found she had healed remarkably well, she was still suffering some psychological after-effects, the court was told. Delivering his verdict, Mr Justice Seagroatt found the Thai Viet Restaurant liable after it restricted the passage of waitresses and diners by positioning a table close to the kitchen. Representatives of the restaurant failed to attend court and Mr Justice Seagroatt said an investigation might be needed to see if the restaurant had moved. He also said it would not be in the interests of justice for waitresses Wong Yin-kuen and Kwan Yu-yuk, who were in court yesterday and had admitted liability, to pay damages because they were 'servants' of the restaurant. He commended them on their 'very responsible' attitude in admitting liability and agreeing the girl should be paid compensation. He also asked the girl's counsel, Joseph Vaughan, to forgive him for publicly examining the girl in the gallery - a task he said he usually did in chambers. But he said he wanted the examination to be conducted in court because the two waitresses were present.