Man threatened to break wife’s neck, family court hears

A woman has been granted an interim barring order against her husband after she told a court he is “forcing me to have sexual relations with him” and threatened to kill her.

The woman told Dublin District Family Court on Wednesday that after she finishes work she stays in her car and waits for her husband to go to sleep in order to avoid him.

The woman was granted an interim barring order on an ex-parte (one side represented only) basis, which excludes her husband from the family home for eight days and from carrying out any further violence or threats of violence, and from watching or being near the home.

In a sworn statement to the court, the woman said she had previously tried to separate from her husband but decided to stay with him for the sake of their children.

The woman said her husband also threatened to kill her if she left him and that he would “break my neck like a duck or a chicken”.

She said she has been kicked by the man in front of their children and had her hair pulled. She said he had also threatened people close to her.

The woman said her husband had accused her of sleeping with other men and that “he is forcing me to have sexual relations with him”.

“I am in fear of my life because of the threats to break my neck,” the woman told the court.

Judge Gerard Furlong granted the woman an interim barring order. A full hearing, which the woman's husband is expected to attend, was set for early in the new year.

‘Drank a lot’

In a separate case, a woman secured a three-year barring order against her husband after she told the court he got her out of bed and pushed her down the stairs.

In a sworn statement to the court, the woman said they had two children together and that sometimes the man drinks “a lot of alcohol”.

She said last month her husband had “drank a lot” and got her out of bed where she was sleeping.

The woman said he pushed her down the stairs and smashed her phone when she tried to call an ambulance. The woman said she could not walk properly after two days and was undergoing medical treatment. “I still feel very bad,” the woman told the court.

She said sometimes her husband hits her and pulls her hair in front of their children and when he is drunk “he threatens me with death”.

“I feel I am not safe. The kids are very scared of him,” she added. The man did not attend the hearing.

The judge said he would grant the woman a three-year barring order given the “very serious evidence” presented and included a recommendation that the man attend a course for perpetrators of domestic violence as well as addiction services.

The judge said the woman’s husband could only contact her via text message in relation to access arrangements for their children.

Emergency applications will continue to be heard at Dublin District Family Court at Dolphin House in Temple Bar on Christmas Eve and on December 29th, 30th and 31st.