A man who said his wife tried to hit him with a stiletto-heeled boot and previously aimed a shotgun at her ex-husband has secured a protection order against her.
The man told the emergency domestic violence court at Dolphin House in Dublin he and his wife share the same house but are living separate lives.
When he knocked at her bedroom door asking her to stop sending his phone number to work clients of hers, she verbally abused him with “plenty of expletives” and called him “the ugliest man” she had ever seen, he said.
She then got a leather boot with a stiletto heel and tried to hit him with it and he caught her arm, telling her to stop, he said.
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His wife has “a history” and was arrested previously for pointing a shotgun at her ex-husband, he said. ”I’m concerned she might do the same to me.”
A summons was served on him alleging domestic violence but he was “trying to protect myself” and was never in the family court before, he said.
Judge Gerard Furlong granted the man an emergency protection order.
His application was among up to 20 made ex parte (one side only represented) before the judge on Friday.
A young woman alleged her partner, after consuming drugs, assaulted her, including pulling her by the hair, punching her and kicking her in the face.
“I’m very nervous about today but my family have pushed me to do this,” she said when applying for a protection order. She is no longer living with the man, she said.
“Don’t be nervous,” the judge told the woman as he granted the order.
A father got an interim barring order against his mentally ill adult daughter. She spent some months in hospital due to her mental illness and, after her recent discharge, regularly comes to her parents’ home.
The man said his daughter assaulted his wife with her fists and pulled her hair last week. His daughter is in independent living but is unable to sleep and sometimes comes to the family home in the early hours.
When she stays overnight, she walks up and down outside “roaring”, he said.
He is very concerned, including for his adult son with a disability who lives at home and is at risk of seizures, the man said. Unfortunately, his daughter is not eligible under the mental health legislation for involuntary admission to a psychiatric unit, he added.
Telling the man he appreciated his difficulties as a parent in this “very unfortunate” situation, the judge said he did not believe a protection order would suffice and granted an interim barring order.
In another case, a woman said her husband is in another relationship but continues to live in the family home. He controls all financial decisions and plans to sell the house and the situation “deteriorated drastically” over the last 10 months because she refuses to do what he wants, she said.
He sometimes refuses to give her money for groceries and their children’s GAA and other activities, has left the family car without fuel and is verbally abusive about her in front of the children, including calling her a “psycho” and a “lunatic”. He does not want anyone, including her mother, to come to the house, the home atmosphere is “very hostile” and she is in fear each day “of what is to come”.
Judge Furlong, granting a protection order, suggested the woman might consider divorce proceedings. She said she has initiated those.
A protection order was granted to another woman who said her husband has a “Jekyll-and-Hyde” personality, “tells me what to do and say”, opens her post and is a “compulsive liar”.
“His defence is always anger,” she said. “He did some anger management classes but said it was not for him.”
She has been diagnosed with dementia and has just recovered from a serious illness, she said. “I can’t put up with this any more.”
Another woman who said she has suffered physical and verbal abuse from her husband for more than 20 years was granted a protection order.
The most recent incident involved him forcing her out of the bedroom after throwing water on her and leaving bruises on her arms, she said. “He has a drink problem and was drunk.”
She had previously sought a protection order but dropped that “when he promised he would change”. They went to couples counselling “but it has not helped”.
