An Irish man threatened to kill the seven-year-old child of his former partner, a court was told on Thursday.
At the Family Law Court, the judge read out a statement by the woman outlining the grounds for her Safety Order application against the man.
It was one of 19 domestic violence applications before the same court on Thursday. Eighteen of the applicants were made by women, while the male applicant withdrew his application in court.
In her statement, the woman making a Safety Order application said her ex-partner “is violent and he threatened to kill my seven-year-old”.
The man is contesting whether he is the father of the woman’s nine-month-old baby and, in her statement, the woman said that on a recent Sunday, “he hit me twice and pushed me while I was holding the nine-month-old. There was a previous incident of violence where he nearly killed me. I reported that to the gardaí and my GP.”
Emergency Protection Order
The woman secured an emergency Protection Order against the man in July and she and the man were in court on Thursday.
The man was not legally represented and asked by the judge about the Safety Order application, the man replied: “That is fine. That is okay.”
The man was told the Safety Order puts on a permanent basis for three years the protection provided by the Protection Order.“If there is a breach of that by you in any way, that makes you liable to criminal prosecution in the open public court,” warned the judge.
The woman is also seeking maintenance for her baby and evidence is due to be heard on that application on September 21st. The man told the court: “We are going to do a DNA to try to resolve it. The test kit will be posted down in the next five days and it takes 12 days to come back so, hopefully, it should be resolved by then.”
The woman’s solicitor said her client was agreeable to the paternity test, as long as the man pays for it.
Separately, the judge granted a three-year Safety Order to a woman who told the court in a statement that she “feels like a prisoner” with her husband of 22 years.
The woman said her husband was controlling, emotionally abusive, bullying, looked at her phone and did not allow her to contact her friends.
