A woman, who told a court her former partner threatened to slit her neck, locked her in rooms and recorded her in the bath, has been granted an interim barring order.
The woman told Dublin District Family Court on Tuesday that the man had followed her to the court, while over the weekend had "handed me a rope off my housecoat and told me to hang myself".
The interim barring order, which requires the man to leave the family home immediately for eight days, was granted on an ex-parte basis (one side only represented) and a full hearing, where both parties are expected to attend, was set for next week.
In a sworn statement to the court, the woman said she and the man have a number of children together, and live in the same house but are not in a relationship anymore. She said the man’s abuse has been going on for three years but that she was “afraid to leave”.
The woman said the man is “controlling” and that he told her he was going to take their children away from her.
‘Hit her’
“He said if he doesn’t [take the children], he will slit my neck and that either way I won’t have the kids,” she said.
The woman said her former partner had hit her in front of their children on numerous occasions. She said on Monday night the man shoved her against their front door and grabbed her neck.
“He handed me a rope off my housecoat and told me to hang myself,” the woman told the court.
The woman said the man had locked her in rooms, locked her shoes in different rooms so she can’t leave the house and had taken her phone previously.
She said he had taken her passport, her social welfare card and had also taken recordings of her on his phone while she was in the bath.
The woman said on Sunday night the man “threatened to pipe bomb the house while I was asleep”. She said he followed her to court on Tuesday where she was seeking to get a court order against him.
Eight days
A member of An Garda Síochána confirmed to the court that the man was waiting outside the courthouse.
Judge Gerard Furlong granted the woman an interim barring order, which excludes the man from the family home for eight days and from carrying out any further violence or threats of violence, and from watching or being near the home.
Judge Furlong said as the woman was followed to court he would take the “unusual step” of getting a garda to serve the man with the order at the courthouse “so he will be bound by it immediately”.
In a separate case, a woman told the court her husband picked her up and threw her on the ground and had hit her on her head.
The woman was granted a protection order on an ex-parte basis, which prohibits the man from using or threatening to use violence.
A full hearing, which the woman’s husband is expected to attend, was set for a later date.
