A domestic violence order was granted at the Dublin District Family Court yesterday against a man who allegedly beat his wife because she had not cooked his dinner.
A second order was granted after a woman showed messages to the judge in which her estranged husband threatened to kill her.
A woman told Judge Deirdre Gearty she was married for nearly 20 years and had a large family, with children from preschool age to young adulthood. She said three weeks ago her husband came home and found she had not cooked the dinner. He was angry and beat her. She demonstrated for the judge where he had hit her on her upper arms.
He had hit her “many, many days and many, many times” before, she said. On this occasion, she called gardaí and her husband left the family home.
Asked why she did not come to court immediately, she said she didn’t feel good, but now felt better. She also said there was an issue with money.
“I can’t do it any more . . . I am afraid of him,” she said.
Emergency
Judge Gearty granted the woman a protection order, a short-term emergency order given when only an applicant is in court. It requires her husband not to use or threaten to use violence or put her in fear. A full hearing of the case was set for July.
Separately, the court heard an application for a safety order, a longer-term domestic violence order, made after both parties are given an opportunity to be heard in court. When the case was called, the woman who made the application appeared, but her estranged husband did not. She said he had gone back to his home country, but would return to Ireland next month. They were married in 2012, had one child and had been living apart for more than a year.
Protection
The woman told Judge Gearty her husband was aware of the court case, but did not care and accused her of trying to make him angry. He had threatened to kill her via Facebook after she obtained a protection order against him and made threats on the phone.
“He has me terrified,” she said.
She also said he had threatened her and pushed her while they were on holiday in his home country because he did not want her to be out.When she refused to take their child to his home country, he pushed her against a wall. He had physically grabbed her and pulled her out of her house on one occasion, she said. On another occasion, he put his fist up to her face and punched the table, but “reeled himself in” because her father was coming. She said he also threatened to kill the child’s baby-sitter.
She gave the judge her phone to show her the messages her husband had sent and said she was frightened about what would happen when he came back to Ireland.
Judge Gearty read the messages and said she was satisfied to grant a safety order for five years.
In another case, Judge Gearty told a man who had made an application for a safety order against his estranged wife that she could not hear it because it was filed after judicial separation proceedings were filed at the Circuit Court.
