Judge grants emergency barring order against 'volatile' husband after threat to kill wife

A judge has granted an emergency order to a woman for the removal of her husband from the family home after the judge heard of the husband's repeated threats to kill his wife.

At a sitting of the family court in Ennis, Judge Patrick Durcan granted the Interim Barring Order (IBO) to the woman after hearing that her husband has threatened to kill his wife on a number of occasions.

In her statement seeking the order read out by Judge Durcan, the woman stated her husband has been “physically and emotionally abusive to me for the last five years”.

She stated: “He has beaten me up on many occasions throughout our marriage. Three weeks ago, he beat me up and tried to strangle me. He threatened to kill me. I called the gardaí as I feared for my life."

She added: “He has tried to strangle me on a few occasions throughout our marriage and there are constant threats to kill me. He is very violent. He shouts and screams at me and is very aggressive in the house.

'Immediate risk of significant harm'

"He throws bottles and objects and this scares me.”

The woman stated that “there is an immediate risk of significant harm to me if the order is not made immediately and the granting of a protection order would not be sufficient".

The woman told Judge Durcan that she was fearful of this man.

Judge Durcan told the woman that after she receives a copy of the interim barring order, she is to then bring it to the gardaí who will serve it on her husband.

The application was being made on an ex-parte basis and the man was not represented in court.

In the sitting of the family law court, Judge Durcan also granted a protection order to a woman who told Judge Durcan that her ex-partner was harassing their children.

The woman told the judge that last month, her ex-partner turned up at the family home drunk, shouting and calling her “a slag and all names”.

She stated that he apologised the next day.

She stated: “I can’t sleep because I can’t change the locks and he comes and goes as he pleases. I have no idea what is going to happen next.”

She added: “He is now convinced that I am seeing someone else and is constantly harassing all the kids. I have no idea what he will do next but I am genuinely fearful for my safety when he is drunk. He is unpredictable and very volatile.”

In a separate case, Judge Durcan granted a protection order to a woman after she told him that her ex-partner is sending her abusive messages.

She stated that over a recent three day period, she received 190 notifications from him made up of 175 messages and the remainder were missed calls.

She stated: “Some of these messages are abusive and some are declaring war.”

She added: “I often don’t open the messages as they can be very abusive calling me names and criticising me.”