tigger, there's no way on gods planet that an a320 was dispatched with a bent nose gear....period. It did a serious of LHR rotations thereafter.
I'm sure you are aware the nose wheel when extended is canted slightly forward.If it was damaged as bad as you make out it would have been (a) ferried to dub with the gear extended on a non pax maint flight or (b) removed from service and had to do gear retraction tests in a hangar etc etc. You'd be suprised the amount of severe compressions landing gear units can take.
