Husband contravened order on anniversary

A Polish man contravened a safety order and walked 15km from his home in Kilmichael to his wife’s house in Macroom because it was their wedding anniversary.

Stanislaw Wojnicki, aged 37, who is living at what he described as an office in Kilmichael, appeared at Cork District Court yesterday.

He was charged that on November 30 at The Glenties, Macroom, he contravened a safety order in that he allegedly “phoned his ex-wife 12 times and then sat outside her house in an intoxicated condition. That he knocked at the door and asked for a drink. That his wife gave him water through a window and he put his hand in the window preventing her from closing it. And later went to the rear of the house.”

The charge was brought contrary to the Domestic Violence Act.

Garda Eamonn O’Riordan objected to bail. Eddie Burke, solicitor, applied for bail on Wojnicki’s behalf.

Mr Burke called Wojnicki to give evidence and put it to him: “The guards are worried.”

The defendant said, “I twice tried to kill myself and extinguish my life. It was my wedding anniversary. I tried to talk to her. That is all.”

He accepted: “I should not go to my wife’s house.”

Judge Olann Kelleher noted that the alleged offence of the accused turning up at his wife’s house and breaching a safety order occurred after midnight on Thursday night/Friday morning.

“I was drunk. I walked 15km from Kilmichael to Macroom,” said Wojnicki.

Mr Burke said that such a trek for the defendant was not unusual.

Judge Kelleher remarked: “It is love as well.”

The judge said he would grant a short adjournment on strict bail conditions.

The case was put back until Wednesday at Macroom District Court.

Conditions require him to have no contact, direct or indirect, with the complainant, to abstain from intoxicants, and stay out of Macroom.