A man who claimed he slapped his partner “just once”, not several times as she alleged, has been barred from their home.
Granting a three-year barring order, Judge Ciarán Liddy said he was satisfied the man “repeatedly assaulted” the woman at home in front of two young children, which was “completely unacceptable”.
In evidence to the emergency domestic violence court at Dolphin House, Dublin, the woman, who was legally represented, said she was slapped and assaulted by the man a number of times during their relationship when he asked her for money.
She said she was not working but had money for the family’s welfare and he was trying to take it from her.
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During a recent incident, he hit her twice in the face and once in the head, and he tried to block her when she sought to leave the house with the children, she said.
The man, representing himself, said he was working and had not demanded money from the woman, but asked her to buy groceries and other necessities. He said he had not slapped her twice, “just once”. There was “too much tension” and he said he acted like that “because of stress”.
“She blames me for everything but it is not true.”
When the man said he wanted no contact with the woman but wanted to see the children, the judge suggested he seek legal advice.
In an ex-parte (one side only represented) application, an interim barring order was granted to a woman who claimed her partner told her he was “going to strangle me with charger wire” and set the house on fire.
The man has assaulted her, often screamed in her face and called her names, and threatens and annoys their teenage children “to get at me”, she said. She said he had smashed up the house and her car, “is keeping money from us for basic needs” and “abusing my dog”.
A father and his adult daughter were granted protection orders against his estranged partner, the girl’s mother, who was described as a “chronic” alcoholic.
The man said they were in a relationship for more than 15 years without incident but that changed about six years ago when the woman’s drinking went “above limits”.
The woman now lives elsewhere with a boyfriend but regularly returns to the family home, he said. She had regularly hit and threatened him when he refused to give her money while she was under the influence of alcohol, he said, including threatening to put a knife to his head in front of their young son.
Their children are “terrified”, he said, and attending counselling due to their mother’s behaviour, including aggression towards his daughter. The woman required hospital treatment because of her alcohol intake and was twice admitted for addiction treatment but ran away, the court heard.
The daughter said she had been under constant worry and stress for years due to her mother’s drinking and physically and emotionally abusive behaviour. Her mother is “a compulsive liar” who made “multiple false allegations” against her father “who has never laid a finger on her”, she said.
There were “multiple instances” of her mother attacking her and she had had to leave home many times as a result, the daughter said.
Her mother has had a man in the house who is “threatening to me” and, when alone at home, she sleeps with a wooden pole “because I’m terrified for my safety”.
The daughter said she and her brother are having counselling and her young brother is struggling to deal with witnessing his father and sister being attacked, hearing insults and seeing their mother “passed out”. The daughter said she had dropped out of college and given up her future career to support her father and brother.
Another woman got a protection order after saying a safety order obtained against her ex-partner had expired and she feared for herself and their son over what he “will continue to do”.
He refuses to accept their relationship is over, had beaten her before for trying to end it and made threats to end her life and that of her son, she said.
The woman feared he would sell photographs and videos, recorded without her consent, online for money. He breached safety orders before and also posted a safety order obtained by her on social media, leading to harassment of her and her son, she said.
She said the man has untreated serious mental health issues, as well as drug and alcohol issues, and this puts her in fear. She has to facilitate his access to their son and needs court protection, she said.
In another case, a mother who said her adult son told her he was “going to make your life a misery for the rest of your days” was granted an interim barring order against him.
The woman said she was in fear of her son and did not want him in her home. He is “very unpredictable”, even when not using cocaine and alcohol, has pushed her, shouted at her and called her insulting names. He once tried to kick her but missed, instead making a hole in the wall. He has broken things, including a bed, and walks around the house, following and recording her.
“I felt like I was going insane,” she said.
The woman said she believed her son broke the lock on a downstairs window to access her home.
“I’m scared what he might do to me.”
She called gardaí multiple times and they advised her to seek a barring order, she said.
