Drug dealer told Clare woman he would wipe her sons' debts if she followed him to filling station toilets, court told

Woman told court her sons are both drug addicts and her home had 'been subjected to constant intimidation from drug dealers' who threatened to burn her house down and rape her

'I live in fear every day that I will find one of my sons dead and I can’t cope with this anymore,' Clare woman told court

A mother has told a court she ‘lost the plot’ after a drug dealer told her her sons’ drug debts would be wiped if she followed him into the toilets at a filling station.

At the Family Law Court, the Co Clare woman said after that incident she never again paid a drug debt incurred by her two sons, who are both addicts.

The woman said: “Every single day, there are drug dealers at the door. I am a nice person but I feel that I am getting angrier and angrier at the drug dealers on the door.” 

The woman said she used to work two jobs to pay off her sons' drug debts.

Recalling the petrol station incident, she said: “When I went to pay, one drug dealer at a petrol station and he said to me ‘I will write the debt off if you come into the toilets with me’. I lost the plot.

 “They know that I don’t pay anymore. The threats are becoming more threatening.” 

Asked by Judge Adrian Harris if she had reported the threats to gardaí, the woman said one of the men to have issued threats was being investigated for serious crime and a senior garda told her: “We can’t keep you safe if you make the statement."

The mother was seeking a protection order against her two adult sons who live in the family home and remain in active addiction.

In her statement seeking the orders, she said: “I live in fear every day that I will find one of my sons dead and I can’t cope with this anymore.

“I go to work everyday not knowing what I am going to come home to.” 

The mother said her sons “are fabulous sons when they are not in addiction”.

“My home has been subjected to constant intimidation from drug dealers and I have had threats to burn my house down, to rape me, my windows have been broken numerous times and my front door has been broken in.

“Both my sons fight violently with each other as they are drunk on a daily basis — I can’t separate two men fighting.” 

She added: “I don’t live anymore — I just walk around trying to get through the day without one of my sons dying. 

“I want my sons to find peace because they are so loved but despite all my efforts over the years I still live in fear."

The woman said she was not seeking a barring order against her sons at this time.

She said one of her sons had sold all his clothes and his shoes to fund his addiction.

“He even sold his sister’s clothes, he has sold everything we have in the house.” 

If the two men breach the protection order they can be arrested without warrant by gardaí.

Judge Harris adjourned the two cases to November.