Jail threat issued to mother of 20-month-old baby over access to father

By Gordon Deegan

A judge has issued a jail threat against a mother of a 20-month-old baby if she does not provide the child's father with proper access to the child.

At the Family Law court in Ennis, Judge Patrick Durcan said that the woman “is flagrantly breaching the order of the court”.

The father's solicitor told the court: “There have been 13 access visits since a court order over access has been put in place.

He said: “Every single one has been frustrated in some manner by the mother with her family members being there, her family members intimidating my client and her family members following my client."

In response, Judge Durcan told the mother's solicitor: “If there is evidence of that, then your client’s family members will be spending their time going down to Limerick prison.”

Mr Doherty told the court that his client has problems relating to previous access visits and this related to the 20-month-old being fed chips by her father.

Mr Doherty said that his client also had concerns over the child’s father giving the child the wrong medication when he gave the child a double dose of Nurofen.

Judge Durcan told the court that “if there isn’t proper access on the next occasion I will make an order for imprisonment”.