A distressed woman who alleged she recently lost a pregnancy following an assault by a man who “made me a prostitute” has secured an interim barring order against him.
The woman, who had visible facial injuries when she attended the emergency domestic violence court at Dublin’s Dolphin House alone, said that when she first met the man she was a teenager and he knew she was a child in care.
He “made me a prostitute” up to two years ago, she said. “I can’t do it any more.”
It was her birthday recently, and she was at home pregnant when he assaulted her, she said. She was treated in hospital and is no longer pregnant, she said.
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Her accommodation was provided with assistance from the Health Service Executive and is in her name only, but the man lives there, “won’t leave me alone”, is “very controlling” and refuses to leave, she said. “He’s in the house right now.”
In response to Judge Gerard Furlong asking whether she was in a relationship with the man, she said: “I would not call it a relationship.”
She is in fear of her life, the woman said. “At this stage, I’m only existing, I’m taking a chance on him killing me.”
When the judge asked if she had children with the man, she said: “I gave them up for adoption.”
Granting the woman’s ex parte (only one side was represented in court) application for an interim barring order, the judge told her she should immediately bring the order papers to her local Garda station and they would remove the man from her home. She should contact gardaí if he returns or tries to make contact, he said.
“I won’t go home, I’ll go straight to the guards now,” she said.
When the judge asked would she return to court when the interim order is due to be reviewed later this month, she replied: “Hopefully.”
In another of several ex parte applications under the Domestic Violence Act before the judge on Friday, a woman said she is in fear as a result of her ex-partner’s “extremely obsessive” behaviour.
They have lived apart for several years but, over the past two weeks, he has been stalking her, sitting in his van close to her home, constantly calling her wanting to know where she is and who she is with, and threatening her, including telling her “a gang of women” would beat her up, she said.
He has stopped paying maintenance for their teenage daughter “as a form of punishment”, she added. Her home is rented solely in her name, but he has a key that he is not entitled to and will not return to her, she said. She plans to change the locks, she said.
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“I believe his mental health is very unstable and he is a danger to me,” she said.
Judge Furlong said he would grant a protection order. As the order was being handed to the woman, she told the judge: “My hands are shaking. I’ve never been in here before in my life.”
In a different application, an elderly woman who said she is afraid of her husband and fears he is tampering with her food got a protection order against him.
She saw her husband putting something in her food and was sick afterwards, she said. She eats out daily because she is afraid to eat at home, she said.
Her husband has two sprays, she does not know what is in them, and he caused her “terrible” pain after spraying one of them into her eyes, which became all bloodshot, she said. She is afraid of him, she said, adding that he broke her ribs in the past with his elbow.
