Woman and teenage daughter ‘physically and verbally abused’

A woman has secured a barring order against a man who hit and verbally abused her and their teenage daughter. 

 

The girl’s mother told Dublin District Family Court on Monday her husband has been physically and verbally abusive towards both of them. 

 

The woman was granted a three-year barring order against the man, 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 and her daughter were present in court, while her husband did not attend the hearing. 

 

In a sworn statement to the court, the woman said her husband was verbally and physically abusive towards her for a long time and that she stayed in a refuge on two occasions previously. 

 

The woman said her husband recently started to become abusive towards their teenage daughter. The woman said she stayed with friends for a while and sought space in a refuge again. 

 

I’ve been through a lot. He needs to work with his anger issues. He needs to seek help 

The woman said she returned to the family home in recent weeks with her children, and her husband called their teenage daughter a bitch and hit her. 

 

The woman said she and her daughter are afraid of the man. The court heard the woman was previously granted an interim barring order against her husband for eight days and he hadn’t been home since. 

The woman said she has had no contact with her husband but that he had disconnected the home’s phone and wifi. 

 

“I’ve been through a lot. He needs to work with his anger issues. He needs to seek help,” the woman told the court. 

 

The woman’s daughter did not give evidence to the court but confirmed she was seeking a barring order against her father. 

 

 

Judge Gerard Furlong granted the woman a three-year barring order and included a recommendation that the man engage with a programme for perpetrators of domestic violence. 

 

The woman said her daughter was calling the Garda and the man hit her daughter in the face 

Separately, a woman told the court her partner punched, kicked and pulled her down the stairs by her hair. 

 

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 she and her partner were out for a family occasion and the man kept calling her names while he was drunk. 

 

Accused of affair 

The woman said in the taxi home, the man accused her of having an affair. She said when they got home the man “got me by the hair and pulled me around”. The woman said her partner began calling her names and punched her a number of times. 

 

She said the man kicked her and was “standing on top of me so I couldn’t get up”. The woman said her daughter was calling the Garda and the man hit her daughter in the face. 

The woman said gardaí arrived and arrested the man but he was released later that night and returned to the family home. The woman said she packed a bag and left the home. 

 

Judge Furlong said he was granting the woman an interim barring order “without hesitation” and set a full hearing, which the man is expected to attend, for next week.