A woman has secured an interim barring order against her husband after alleging he hit their teenage daughter so badly on her head she suffered concussion.
The woman told Dublin District Family Court on Friday that he also “bit” into their daughter’s hand and she was hospitalised.
In a sworn statement to the court, the woman said: “My husband was regularly violent to me in front of our children. He hit me on the head, bit into my hands ... He squeezed my arms, I got very big bruises.
“In pregnancy he pulled me by the hair on the floor. I feared for the life of the unborn child. He shouted at me ... He said that he would leave me dead.”
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The woman added that “peaceful family life is impossible” and her husband had broken and thrown things in anger.
The woman was accompanied to court by a garda who said the man was currently in custody and before the courts.
Judge Gerard Furlong said he would grant the woman an interim barring order on an ex-parte (one side represented only) basis “straight away” and that it would come into effect immediately.
An interim barring order excludes the man from the property for eight days, and from watching or being near it. A full hearing, which the woman’s husband is expected to attend, was set for a later date.
“If he comes back, immediately contact the gardaí,” the judge told the woman.
In a separate case, a woman secured a two-year barring order against her adult daughter after she told the court her daughter had “bent my fingers back”.
The court heard the woman had secured an interim barring order earlier this month but the case had to be adjourned as her daughter, who is currently in custody, was before the courts that day.
In a sworn statement to the court, the woman said her daughter had previously arrived at her door “out of her mind on drugs”.
“She had been missing for a week, drinking and using crack cocaine,” she said.
“I let her in as she pushed the door in on me, she went straight upstairs, looking for stuff to take out of my room and also her room. I went upstairs to ask her to stop, to put my stuff back.
“She pushed me, bent my fingers back, told me to get out of her way. She was screaming. She locked herself in my room, took my bank card, my new clothes with tags on them.”
The woman said she called the gardaí at this stage as she was afraid her daughter would “hit me or push me again”.
“I begged her to stop but she wouldn’t,” she added. “The guards came fairly quickly, they said they could hear her screaming from around the corner. They advised me to come here and protect myself.”
The woman said she was afraid of her daughter, especially when she is taking crack cocaine.
“She needs help, I have tried so many times. She knows that too,” she said.
The judge asked the woman’s daughter, who was present in court for the hearing, if she was agreeable to a two-year barring order, to which she responded: “Yes.”
Furlong told them if circumstances changed within that period he was always open to them coming back to court, provided it was voluntary on the mother’s part, and would “gladly lift the order and substitute a safety order which would allow the respondent to go back home”.
“Bear that in mind,” he said.
The judge also told the woman’s daughter that “any communication with your mother will have to be civil”.
“There’s no barrier on communication as such, but as long as this order is in place you can’t go back to the home,” he said. “I wish both of you well. I hope things progress positively for you.”
