A woman living with her young children in a refuge got a protection order against their father after saying she fears for their safety.
The woman, a mother of several children, including three aged under four years, said the man was a “full-time alcoholic” who also used cocaine.
Their children were never able to use the bathroom in previous accommodation “because he was always in there on drugs”, she said.
She was never able to ask questions of him “without being shouted and screamed at” and is in fear for herself and the children, she told the emergency domestic violence court at Dolphin House in Dublin.
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The man used to hit their three-year-old child “a lot”, and “he would box him on the head”, she said. He is currently not permitted access to the children, she added.
Judge Gerard Furlong told the woman he would grant a protection order.
In a separate ex parte (one side only) application on Friday, a woman who said she is in a women’s refuge after being threatened by her child’s father that she would be murdered got a protection order against him.
The woman said she had a baby following a “one-night stand” with the man. Their child is now aged almost two years but, after she had permitted the man some access, the child had been returned to her on four occasions with injuries, she said.
Asked by the judge why she continued to permit access after the first time the child was returned with injuries, she said the man had threatened to use her mental health issues against her to have the baby taken from her.
The man and a relative of his were very abusive to her when she sought the child back, she said, and he threatened she would be “murdered”. She said he is from a drug-dealing family and is “sexually perverted”, having previously injured her when he was “out of his head on cocaine”.
In reply to the judge, she said she will not allow the man any further access to the child and her intention is for both herself and the child to shelter in the refuge.
In a separate case, a mother got a second interim barring order against her adult son after the court heard gardaí had not served the first order on him prior to its expiry.
Her son, aged in his 40s, has a drink and drugs problem, she said. “He’s doing coke, I’ve seen holes in his nose and he’s a gambler, he gambles on everything.”
He is aggressive towards her, has broken doors in the house, and sometimes, after screaming and shouting, gets into his car and rams it before driving off, she said.
She is otherwise alone in her home and is living in fear of her son, she said. She had called gardaí twice last month to have him removed from the house.
After she got the first interim order, she had phoned her son asking him to take service of it, but he told her he would “take no summons” and was “going nowhere”. He had told her: “Goodbye, you won’t see me again.” She had since heard he is seeking “a support group”, she said.
She is in fear of losing her job due to the number of times she has had to come to court, she added. “I won’t get another one at my age.”
The judge returned the matter to a date later this month when the woman will not be working.
In a separate case, a man consented to a three-year barring order sought by his mother. She could have the order “for as long as she likes, no problem”, he said – he just wants his property from the family home. “I’ve stuff all over, I’m living there all my life.”
In evidence, the woman said her son has a history of intimidating behaviour, including shouting and slamming doors, and there were “tensions” between him and his brother. Matters came to a head some weeks ago when he demanded that she throw his brother out, she said. When she refused, he pinned her against a wall and called her “awful names”. He never did that before and she was afraid, she said.
He had made threats to throw her down the stairs, burn the house down and hit his brother with dumbbells while he sleeps, she added.
Another woman who said she is not working and totally dependent on her husband said he is abusive, threatening and financially controlling of her. During a recent incident, he spat in her face twice during an argument and pushed her, she said.
He uses her financial dependence to control her access to basics for herself and food for her cats, she said. He and his family are trying to force her to return to their native Brazil, which would mean abandoning her cats, she said, adding he has threatened to report her to the Irish immigration authorities if she does not go back to Brazil.
