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Woman gets protection order against Garda husband after saying she fears for the lives of herself and her children

Woman alleges faeces was put on her toothbrush and she has been subject to financial, sexual and emotional abuse throughout marriage

The Dublin District Family Court at Dolphin House, East Essex Street. Photograph: Stephen Collins/Collins

Mary Carolan
Fri Mar 8 2024 - 07:00

A distressed woman has told a judge she fears for her life and the lives of her children due to alleged behaviour of her Garda husband, whom she is seeking to divorce.

The woman said she has been subject to financial, sexual and emotional abuse and coercive control throughout her marriage.

Some recent incidents included faeces being put on her toothbrush, which she believed her husband was responsible for, and swerving his car at her, she told Dublin District family court.

Her children had locked themselves into her bedroom to avoid incidents and her husband scared their son when driving him a couple of years ago by saying he would drive both of them into an estuary, she said.

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Her husband has told her in emails he is willing to “lose it all”, she said. “I am fearful for my life and my kids’ lives.”

In an ex parte (one side only represented) application on Thursday under the Domestic Violence Act, the woman said that, since she issued divorce proceedings, her husband’s behaviour has escalated and is “more erratic”.

He had threatened her with arrest and subjected her to emotional abuse, including shouting and banging at her bedroom door, she said.

He follows her around the house and she is afraid to eat or drink anything in case he had tampered with them, she said.

In relation to the divorce proceedings, her husband has changed solicitors and is not communicating with her solicitor, she told Judge Gerard Furlong.

A GPS tracking device and a listening device was found in her car recently and she suspected her husband put it there, she added.

Having established that domestic violence is not pleaded in the separate divorce proceedings, Judge Furlong said he would grant the woman an emergency protection order returnable to next May. If it is not obeyed, she should contact gardaí, he said.

In response to concerns raised by the woman in the context of her husband’s occupation, the judge told her that gardaí have to do their duty irrespective of occupation. There is no validity to any threats by her husband to arrest her, he added.

Mary Carolan

Mary Carolan

Mary Carolan is the Legal Affairs Correspondent of the Irish Times

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