'Delusional' businessman alleged ex was a member of swingers' sex club
In evidence, the woman said the man's false allegations had dragged her name through the mud in her local community.
A judge has told a businessman that he is ‘delusional’ after he made ‘dreadful’ allegations that his ex-partner was a member of a ‘swingers’ sex club.
At a Family Law District Court, Judge Mary Larkin granted the woman a two-year safety order against her ex-partner after she said that the 80 text messages he sent her in one night constituted ‘harassment’ on his part.
Judge Larkin dismissed a safety order application that the man had made against his ex-partner after he told the court that he wasn’t in fear of her.
Solicitor for the woman, Frank Doherty, said that part of the man's grounds for seeking the safety order were “false allegations” that his client had pressured him to join swingers’ parties.
Judge Larkin said that the businessman “is persisting in saying that she is a sex addict and doing this, that, and the other. I don’t really care about that — that doesn’t sway my mind one bit.”
She pointed out to the court that the woman has a young child with the man and also works full-time.
Judge Larkin said: “Good luck to her if she has time for loads of sex but I am saying that it is highly unlikely.”
In evidence, the woman denied that she was ever in a swingers’ club and the man's false allegations had dragged her name through the mud in her local community.
The couple split up last year because of the man’s cocaine problem and he admitted to Judge Larkin that he was spending €600 some weeks on the drug.
He told the court that he longer takes drugs after spending time in rehab.
The woman said her ex “accused me of sleeping with other people, having affairs, and accused me of sleeping with the carpenter working in the house”.
She said: “He got it into his head that I was in a swingers club. He threatened that if I didn’t come clean about being in a swingers' club that he was going to tell my parents that I was a swinger and in sex clubs.”
The woman said that a female colleague was open about being in a swingers’ club and she had mentioned this to her then-partner.
She said: “He was paranoid about me being in a swingers’ club and he made contact with this woman."
She added: “He was trying to coerce her to say that she had seen me at one of these parties and also went as far as joining the page himself, ‘Fab Swingers’ to see if I was on it.
The woman said that the man “told my dad I was into ‘dogging’, into same-sex relationships, that I was a lesbian, that I was going to swinger parties with the carpenter that worked in our house."
She added: “He was then convinced I was this half-naked girl on the site and sent that picture of the half-naked girl to my father and said that was me.”
The woman said: “I have never in my life been involved in a swingers’ party or asked him to join a swingers’ party. Never. That was all over the national papers because of that lie he told. Never in my life. If there is proof I would love to see it. Show me something.”
The man initially made the ‘swingers parties’ allegation at a preliminary family law court hearing earlier this year and the woman said: “My name has been dragged through the mud because of these false accusations. I never did any of the things he said but I paid the price with it all in the newspapers.”
In court, Mr Doherty read out a newspaper headline from the court hearing earlier this year - ‘Businessman claims ex pressured him into joining swingers’ parties’.
The woman's solicitor said: “My client has had to deal with that.”
Asked by Judge Larkin how she could have been identified outside court where the in-camera rule applies, Mr Doherty said: “It got out in the community and we wonder how it got out in the community. Unfortunately, it has caused an awful lot of embarrassment to my client and her family.”
In court, the man denied that he was ‘sexting’ the woman who admitted to ‘swinging’.
He said: "I was trying to get this information from her.”
Judge Larkin told the man: “You are delusional."
She said that the man “made dreadful allegations about his ex being involved in swinging”.
Judge Larkin said that the man had shown no evidence of "emotional sobriety”.
Solicitor for the businessman, Colum Doherty, said that the domestic violence safety order application against his client amounted to "character assassination".
In response, Judge Larkin said: “It is not.” She also ruled that the man can have supervised access to his child on condition he provides clean drug tests.
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