A pregnant woman who fears an “immediate and serious risk” to her safety from her unborn child’s father has obtained a protection order against him.
Her ex-partner has a cocaine problem, was violent to her in the past and continues to engage in threatening and abusive behaviour towards her, the woman told the emergency domestic violence court at Dolphin House, Dublin.
He has repeatedly sent her threatening, intimidating and abusive messages, including threats to come to her home, she said.
“I am in constant fear he will show up and harm me. His behaviour is escalating. He has a drug problem, which increases my fear because I am concerned he may not be in a stable state of mind if he follows through on the threats.
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“I genuinely believe there is an immediate and serious risk to my safety, I need this harassment to stop so I can feel safe again.”
The woman’s application was among several made ex parte – where one side only is represented – to Judge Gerard Furlong on Friday for protection and interim barring orders under the Domestic Violence Act.
A couple sought an interim barring order against their psychiatrically ill daughter, aged in her 30s. “We are afraid of her,” her trembling mother said.
Their daughter has a long history of mental illness and substance abuse and had become increasingly unstable over the past year, with daily psychotic episodes, severe panic attacks and irrational beliefs including that her mother was poisoning her and people watching her, she said.
Her daughter has attacked and bitten her and she is afraid to be alone in the house with her, the woman said. Although retired, she leaves the house when her husband goes to work and only returns when he finishes, she added.
Her daughter came into her room one night this week, trapped her arms and bashed her on the head, “screaming she was going to finish me”. The woman fled the house and alerted gardaí, who knew her from previous incidents, and her daughter was committed to hospital. Wiping away tears, she said: “I can’t live like this.”
Granting the order, the judge said he was “very sorry” they were going through this. He understood seeking such an order was very difficult for parents but the court deals daily with parents who have to protect themselves, he said. He hoped their daughter would get the necessary assistance and treatment, he added.
In another case, a woman said she recently spent two months in a women’s refuge after fleeing her partner following an incident during which he bit her so badly she required a tetanus injection. There was “lots of domestic abuse”, physical and verbal, during their relationship of several years and he was addicted to drink and drugs, including ketamine, “street benzos” and “anything he could get”.
They have a young child but he became angry when the child cried, she said. “There was so much abuse but I stayed because I loved him. I just wanted a family but the abuse was too serious to continue.”
Their child is in interim care with one of her relatives but she has access and is working with Tusla to get her daughter back. “I just want it all to stop and to be with my daughter.”
In other applications, a mother who came into court with the assistance of a walking aid got an interim barring order against one of her sons.
He “openly” deals drugs from their home and is a drug user, the woman said. “He’s not even hiding it. He puts some white stuff up his nose, he goes round the house like a crazed person.”
Three men, one wielding a hurley, recently turned up at her home and went to attack her son, she said.
After one of his brothers shielded him, the men left, threatening they would return with more weapons, she said. That led to her family putting her son out of the house.
The judge told the woman he was “without hesitation” granting an interim barring order.
Another son, who accompanied the woman to court, said the arrival of the three men at their home, and his own assault by this “drugs gang”, was “the breaking point”.
After being “kicked out” of their home by his family, his brother tried to assault him but was restrained and left before gardaí, whom the family had called, arrived, he said. His brother is well known to the gardaí and is facing criminal proceedings, he added.
