A mother who alleged her adult son threatened on St Patrick’s night to beat up his brother and destroy her home and his grandmother’s home unless she gave him money for drugs has secured a protection order against him.
The woman told the emergency domestic violence court at Dublin’s Dolphin House she was not seeking a barring order for the moment because she wanted to give her son “a chance”. He has a history of drug use and “aggression and volatile behaviour comes with that”, she told Judge Gerard Furlong on Friday.
He put holes in the walls and doors of her home, she fears his behaviour will escalate and she has a younger child whom she needs to protect, she added.
When her son was “on the town” on St Patrick’s night, he phoned her saying he was coming home to beat up his brother and destroy her house, she said. She persuaded him to go to her mother’s house but he threatened to break that up too unless she gave him €100 to buy cocaine.
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In another application under the Domestic Violence Act, a distressed woman who alleged her partner had attacked her with a clothes iron, bitten her and spat in her face got an interim barring order.
“He controls me with fear,” she told the judge. “It’s the worst time of my life.”
“I haven’t been able to stay in my own home since I left on Tuesday,” she added. Her apartment is in her name only, the court heard.
A woman seeking a protection order said she suffered bruising after being headbutted by her husband. The judge told her he could see “very extensive” bruises around her eyes.
Her husband had been arrested and had appeared in court, the woman said.
Noting she had not sought a barring order, the judge said he would give her a protection order “straight away”. If that was breached, she could consider issuing a barring order summons, he said.
Noting she previously secured a protection order against her husband but did not attend court on the return date, the judge asked her to come back this time. The woman said she would be back and would seek a five-year safety order.
In a separate case, the judge refused an interim barring order sought by a woman against her partner but he granted a protection order.
The woman said they have young children, she moved into a council house in recent months and wanted her partner to leave but he refused to go. He is “angry”, shouts and puts the children in fear, and she has become a “very anxious person” around him, she said.
The judge said an interim barring order requires evidence of an immediate threat to safety and she had not advanced such evidence. “I know you don’t want him there but that’s not a basis for a barring order,” he said, adding he would “marginally” grant a protection order.
“We’re here about safety, not about clearing a house,” he said. She would have to explore other avenues, he told her.
In another application, a woman was refused an interim barring order but secured a protection order against her adult son. There are just the two of them in her home, he has “profound” mental health issues and also has drug addiction problems, she said. He returned to using drugs last Christmas despite undergoing a treatment programme, she said.
In recent days, while she was out, he “staged a break-in” at her home, her new TV was stolen and her kitchen was messed up, she alleged. She thought he might have been having a psychotic episode.
She puts an ironing board across her bedroom door at night because she is in fear, she said.
The evidence did not meet the threshold for an interim barring order but he would grant a protection order, said the judge.
