A woman who decided to “play dead” after being allegedly kicked in the face and body by her partner while their young children watched has got an interim barring order.
After the incident, the woman was taken to hospital and had severe facial bruising when she attended the emergency domestic violence court at Dolphin House, Dublin, on Friday.
Solicitor Sandra McAleer told Judge Gerard Furlong she was assisting the woman in this case of “horrific domestic violence”.
“Look at her face,” Ms McAleer said, adding there were photos of bruising on the woman’s body.
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The woman said she had been in a relationship with the man for a few years, they have young children and he was living in her home.
She alleged he was physically and verbally abusive to her, including calling her “fat” and a “tramp” , often in front of their children.
He “controls every aspect of my life”, does not permit her to be on social media “or to do anything”, and she has no friends, she said.
He is “extremely violent” to other people, including his mother and sister, she alleged.
The man has a schizophrenia diagnosis but has not engaged with services for that condition, she said.
He “punched the head off me” one night recently and kicked her in the face and body when she was on the ground, she said. Her children saw this from their high chairs and one was “hysterical”.
“I was lying there and thought I should play dead so he might leave.” He did leave, she “somehow got the children to bed” and sat on the couch until 7am when she rang gardaí, who immediately called an ambulance when they saw her.
Her partner had allegedly assaulted his sister at their mother’s house after he left her, which led to his being arrested, the judge was told. He was in custody on Friday, having been refused bail.
Judge Furlong told the woman he was very sorry to see her injuries and had “no hesitation” in granting an interim barring order.
Due to a District Court judges conference, the emergency court was the only District Court sitting on Friday, when the judge dealt with more than 20 applications.
A married man who said he was in an intimate relationship with another woman for 14-15 months failed to get an emergency protection order against her over allegedly threatening and slandering him.
He said the affair “turned to coercive control” more than a year ago, the woman had “slandered” him on social media and threatened to contact his wife and share intimate images. She had accused him of harassment and threatened to share text messages she had saved.
If he did not meet her in a particular location at various times, she had threatened she would expose him at his work, he said.
Judge Furlong said the woman’s threat to tell his wife about the affair was not something the court could deal with.
He told the man he had not established a threat to his safety entitling him to an emergency protection order on an ex parte basis (one side only represented) but his application could be heard on a later date when both parties were entitled to be represented.
In another case, an elderly woman in a wheelchair wiped away tears after getting a three-year barring order against her adult daughter.
Her daughter has schizophrenia and regularly smokes weed, she said. She alleged a long history of abuse of her by her daughter, including taking her money and belongings.
She alleged that when she fell out of her wheelchair and broke her arm and leg on one occasion, her daughter refused to call an ambulance and went upstairs to smoke weed. When carers arrived an hour later, an ambulance was called.
The woman said she is in fear for her safety and wants her daughter to return to her own home but she had refused.
The woman previously got an interim barring order. Her daughter did not attend when the matter returned to court on Friday and the woman’s solicitor, Sandra McAleer, said it seemed she had left her mother’s home.
