An elderly man has secured a three-year safety order against his “angry” son who he fears will “do bad things” to his family.
The man broke down while giving evidence at Dublin District Family Court as he sought a protective order from his son, who is aged in his 20s.
He told Judge William Aylmer that while he loved his son, he and his family are “afraid of him”.
He told the court his son stole his bank card, used drugs, broke the door at the family home and vandalised his car. He claimed he was “hurting his siblings and me and my wife”.
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“We are at his mercy. We are afraid of him, that maybe someday he will do bad things to us. I don’t want that to happen,” he said, before becoming emotional in the witness stand.
“He doesn’t respect me,” he said, adding that when his son returns home, he lets him inside. “We love him; we give him food.”
He told Judge Aylmer on Friday that his son left school before completing his Leaving Cert exams during the Covid-19 pandemic when remote classes were introduced.
Since then, he claimed, his son “started creating trouble in the family”, began to use drugs and “gets angry”.
The son was arrested during a recent altercation at the family home, during which he breached an existing safety order held by his mother.
The man claimed that last month, his son stole his bank card and took “all the money”, saying it was almost €200. He later allegedly stole a further sum of money in the region of €150 on the day of his arrest.
“Last night, he was banging the door until 3am, we had no sleep because of him,” he said, adding: “All I want for him is to be good.”
His son, who also attended the court on Friday morning, confirmed he has been charged with breaching the safety order held by his mother. He was told that if convicted for such a charge, this could result in a year-long sentence.
Asked if he had been in prison before, he said he was but “can’t remember” what for.
The son told the judge he has been trying to become “financially stable” by “messing around with social media and stuff”.
He acknowledged there has been “trouble in the house and outside the house”.
Judge Aylmer granted the father a three-year safety order, which prohibits the son from committing or threatening violence towards his father.
The judge told the son: “Clearly, you have been causing him to be in fear of you. That’s unacceptable.”
Noting he will not be prohibited from being at the family home, the judge said the father could bar him himself as “you’re an adult”.
