A judge has granted a barring order for three years to a woman battling cancer after hearing evidence that her husband assaulted her last week.
At a family law court sitting on Monday, the woman told the court: “I am just petrified of being near him.”
Giving sworn evidence, the woman said that on the night of the recent August bank holiday Monday, her husband “took a baton and tried to hit me with it”.
She said he also punched her in the leg and abused her verbally all night.
Her husband, she added, was drinking constantly and she said: “I just can’t cope with it any more.”
She is being treated for cancer and trying to hold down a job.
The woman secured an interim barring order against her husband last week and she told the court that since the granting of the interim order, her husband “phoned my mobile phone 74 times”.
She said: “I just can’t do it. I have to keep my job going because we have a mortgage to pay.”
The woman told the court: “I can’t afford to put him into any kind of treatment centre – I did that before and it won’t be covered by the VHI again. I just can’t afford to do it.”
The woman confirmed to the judge that the family home was owned jointly by herself and her husband.
A solicitor for the husband told the court she had no questions for the woman on her barring order application and the evidence she had given.
In granting the woman the barring order for three years, the judge said her husband was “not in a position to address the court as he is detoxing from alcohol”.
The judge said the woman “has significant fear of this man” and told of “persistent abuse for a long number of years”.
The granting of the order has the effect of requiring the man to leave the family home and puts the woman under the court’s protection for the next three years.