A woman who alleged her husband is seen as “a pillar of the community” but can be “a tyrant” in their home has obtained a protection order.
She and her children “walk on eggshells” at home, her husband gets very abusive to her and them, sometimes her sons answer him back “and he goes mad”, she told the emergency domestic violence court at Dolphin House, Dublin, on Friday.
He has shoved her against the fridge and “came at me angry with his hands” but her son intervened, she said.
Her children ask her why their father is so different outside their home, she said. “It’s like he puts on a mask.”
His behaviour is causing herself and the children stress and anxiety, she said.
“Life has been like this for years. I just want a happy life but it is not a happy life due to his behaviour.”
In another application under the Domestic Violence Act, a distressed mother who said she was violently attacked and trapped for about an hour by her mentally ill adult son was granted an interim barring order against him.
The woman said she was trapped on Friday morning in a “really dangerous” situation in her home. “He was on top of me for an hour, I could not breathe, it’s because of his disease.”
Weeping and holding her head in her hands, she said: “I love him.” Her son, aged in his 20s, has a serious psychiatric illness but does not accept he is sick, is not taking his medication and needs “to be sectioned”.
She and her husband previously obtained a barring order against their son and, after that expired last October, they got a protection order.
She said she had allowed him back home a few weeks ago. His behaviour was acceptable then but on Friday morning he violently attacked her, she said.
Judge Gerard Furlong told the distraught woman he was very sorry she was in this position, she had given her son every opportunity and she now had to do this.
In another case, a protection order was obtained by a woman who alleged her ex-partner took out his penis and tried to push it into her face after she told him she would not have sex with him.
This happened when she was trying to discuss his access to their child, an access she had not stopped, the woman said.
He separately shouted in her face when he got into her car to discuss matters, she said. He was aware she had a work outing that night and told her not to be with anyone. He told her, if it was sex she wanted, he would give it to her, she said.
A protection order was granted to a young woman who alleged she was subject to coercive control and abusive behaviour by her former partner. She said their relationship broke up several weeks ago and she is back living in her family home.
Her ex has sent her abusive messages and has come to her home threatening to kill her and burn down the house and cars, and she is in fear for her own safety and the safety of her family, she said.
The judge dealt with up to 20 applications on Friday, including separate applications by three men. Two obtained protection orders against their ex partners over alleged abusive behaviour while the third man had an access application adjourned.
One man said his former partner has screamed abuse at him in front of their child and has publicly falsely claimed he is subject to a criminal investigation. She is responsible for 144 breaches of access orders, he alleged.
