A woman is scared that her husband of more than 10 years will kill her after he recently rammed his car into the back of hers, Dublin District Family Court has heard.
The woman said on Wednesday that her husband had “hit, kicked, punched and tried to strangle” her on numerous occasions.
She was granted a three-year barring order against him which excludes him from the family home and from carrying out any further violence or threats of violence, and from watching or being near the home.
The woman was present in court with an interpreter, while her husband did not attend the hearing.
In a sworn statement to the court, the woman said she and the man had been in a relationship for almost 30 years and had one child together.
She said her husband had been “very violent” throughout their relationship and that she had secured a barring order against him previously but the order expired earlier this year.
When the barring order expired, she said the man returned to the family home and continued to be abusive. She left the home a number of weeks ago to go “somewhere safe”.
The court heard in recent weeks the woman was driving her car when the man appeared behind her in his car.
“He rammed my car from behind,” the woman said. She said she pulled in at a petrol station and her husband opened her car door and “tore up all my documents”.
The woman called An Garda Síochána and he was subsequently arrested. The woman said she was afraid her husband would kill her as “he has said it many times”.
“He said he will kill me and is okay with going to prison,” she said.
Judge Gerard Furlong granted the woman a three-year barring order and said he was directing gardaí to serve the man with the order.
He also included a recommendation that the man attend a domestic violence perpetrator programme.
Holiday
Separately, a woman told the court that she was pinned up against the wall by her husband, who said he was going to “chew the face off” her while they were on holidays.
The woman was granted an interim barring order on an ex-parte (one side only) basis.
In a sworn statement to the court, the woman said her husband started drinking alcohol at the airport before they travelled on holidays and “never stopped drinking” for the rest of the day.
The woman said on the first night of their holiday he was “angry and aggressive” and she arranged to stay somewhere else for the night. The woman returned back to their accommodation the following day and said she thought her husband would have calmed down by then.
The woman said her husband “got into my face, pinned me up against the wall and said he was going to chew the face off me”. She said she managed to get away and returned later on, when she knew her husband would be out, to get her suitcase.
The woman said she locked him out while she was packing her clothes to leave. She said her husband climbed the veranda, ripped open the shutters and broke down the door to get at her.
“He started punching walls and said he was going to kill me,” she said. The woman said her husband threw her suitcase over the balcony and she ran away as he was doing this. The woman said she slept at the airport for the night and travelled home the following morning.
She said her husband had been “a bit aggressive” in the past “but never to this extent”. The woman told the court a “romantic weekend” had turned into “me running for my life”.
Judge Furlong granted an interim barring order for eight days and set a full hearing, which the woman’s husband is expected to attend, for next week.
