Family court: Husband tried to strangle wife with toaster cable

A woman who has alleged her husband of 35 years tried to strangle her with the cable of a toaster has been granted a temporary safety order.

The Dublin District Family Court heard the woman came home to find her daughter and her sister arguing with her husband on Tuesday.

In a written statement to the court, the woman said she asked her husband what was wrong when he picked up the toaster and “told me I was dead”. The woman said her husband grabbed her and tried to strangle her with the cable of the toaster.

The court heard the couple’s daughter hit her father to get him off her mother. The woman’s sister called the gardaí.

The woman only was present in court on Wednesday.

Judge Gerard Furlong granted a “temporary safety order” and set the full hearing of the application, where both parties are expected to be present, to next month.

A safety order prohibits the person against whom the order is made from engaging in violence or threats of violence. It does not oblige that person to leave the family home.

If the person does not normally live in the family home, it prohibits them from watching or being in the vicinity of where the person applying for the order and dependent children lives.

Nude pictures

Separately, a man was denied a safety order against his former partner, who he said was harassing him with constant text messages. He claimed she had sent nude pictures of him to his sister and current girlfriend.

The man alleged his former partner and mother of their children hit him three weeks ago and then started hitting herself. The man was also seeking to formalise access to their children.

He told the court “I’m afraid for me and people around me”. The man said he has had to block her number from his phone after receiving numerous calls and messages, some of which were threatening.

The couple split last year and the man said his former partner sent nude pictures of him to his sister and current girlfriend while also set up a fake Facebook profile giving the impression it was his.

The woman, who was in court, said she did sent nude pictures but that “it was not about embarrassment” but to prove that “he cheated on me”.

She said she did set up a fake Facebook profile but that she didn’t post anything on the page about him. The woman alleged that she was attacked by her former partner while she was getting a lift off him. “He attacked me, he hit me,” she said.

The woman said she was happy for the man to have access to their children. “I think the kids need it,” she said.

Judge Furlong said he was not going to grant a safety order but would instead put a “strict clause” in the access order.

The man was granted access to their children for one afternoon and an overnight stay per week. He said “neither party are to act or speak in any derogatory manner in front of the children or in any communication concerning the children”.

He said phone numbers were to be exchanged but that contact between parties should only be in relation to their children.

The man was initially reluctant to provide the exact address of his current girlfriend, where the weekly overnight stay with the children is due to take place.

Judge Furlong said “I’m making it clear the mother is not to turn up at this address”.