A woman who claims she was subjected to escalating physical and verbal abuse throughout her two decades of marriage has been granted an order barring her husband from their home.
At a sitting of Dublin District Family Court on Friday, the woman told Judge Gerard Furlong that one alleged violent altercation involved her husband shaking her head, which caused her ear to detach. She said it required stitches and plastic surgery.
In her application to the court, the woman said her husband grabbed, shook and slapped her in various incidents from about a year into their marriage. This behaviour escalated in the years since, but she “didn’t realise it was abuse”, she said.
Throughout their relationship, she has been subject to physical, verbal, sexual and financial abuse, she claimed.
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The woman, who lives with her husband and children, cited alleged instances of him punching, spitting, pulling her hair and grabbing her by the throat. She said she suffered broken ribs following an incident a few years ago.
She said her husband expects her to have sex with him and she did not feel free to refuse him. She alleged being subject to daily name-calling, which made her feel “useless”, adding that her husband makes derogatory comments about her family.
The woman said he hit her in the home during an altercation earlier this week and accused her of stealing from him.
She said she was seeking an order barring her husband from the house “as I want peace for me and my kids”.
Judge Furlong granted the short-term order while only the woman was present in court. “These are very serious circumstances,” he said.
In a separate case, a woman was granted an emergency protection order against her husband who has a severe drug addiction.
The woman told Judge Furlong her husband started taking GHB and crystal meth some time after they moved into their home together in 2020. He has been sober only for short periods since that time, she told the judge.
She told the judge her husband lost his job last year and, following this, he began dealing drugs. He has drugs and drug paraphernalia in their house and has multiple people over to take drugs and have parties, she said.
In one incident, the woman said her husband confronted her, fearful that she had called the gardaí on him. She locked herself in her bathroom and “waited until he passed out”, she said.
Recently he overdosed while driving and was admitted to hospital, she said. The woman said he absconded from the hospital, however, and she does not know where he is.
She has become more fearful of her situation in the last week, she said. Judge Furlong granted an emergency safety order while the man was not present in court.
In another case, a protection order was granted to a woman allegedly in fear for her life because of an escalation in her adult son’s alleged verbal and physical abuse of her.
In her application for an emergency protection order, the woman told the judge her 27-year-old son has threatened to smash her skull, has destroyed their rented home and her personal belongings, and has thrown various objects at her, causing injury.
The woman said she does not feel safe with her son in the house. When the judge asked her if she wanted her son to be ordered to leave, she said: “I don’t know where he will go.”
Judge Furlong acknowledged that it was a difficult position for a parent to be in. He said she had presented enough evidence for a barring order to be granted against her son, but accepted that she did not want to “go that far yet”.
The judge instead granted the woman an emergency protection order, which directs her son to stop committing violence or threats of violence against her.
The son was not present in court when the short-term order was made against him.
