A judge has granted a Protection Order to a Co Clare woman after she told a court that she found four tracking devices purchased by her ‘controlling’ husband at their home.
At Ennis District family law court, Judge Mary Larkin granted the Protection Order after the woman stated “my husband’s behaviour is controlling and spiralling out of control”.
The woman stated: “I do not feel safe in my own home.”
The woman stated that she found the four tracking devices and a mobile phone in two bags hidden away at the family home.
The woman stated that attached to the tracking devices and the mobile phone was an invoice addressed to her husband at his place of work.
The woman stated that her husband “previously told me that he knows my whereabouts”.
The woman described how her husband belittled her with his words in front of their children.
The woman stated that her husband takes her possessions, goes through her mobile phone and locks away food in an upstairs room.
The woman stated that her husband has stopped her from going to work previously and had threatened to go to her workplace and tell everyone stories about her.
Judge Larkin granted the woman the Protection Order which grants the woman court protection pending a hearing of an application for a Safety Order.
Protection Order applications are made on an ex-parte basis in court where the other side is not present and the subject of the Protection Order has an opportunity to contest or rebut the applicant’s evidence at the hearing of a Safety Order.
The Protection Order was one of three granted by Judge Larkin to three women at her court.
In a second case, a woman gave evidence that during the period of the current Covid 19 ‘lockdown’ on March 31st last, her partner at their home punched her in the face shortly after 12am and left her with a broken nose.
In the third case, Judge Larkin granted a Protection Order to a woman who stated that she was in fear of her partner coming home and that on December 16th last, he grabbed her by the throat “and threw me over the couch”.
She stated that the man put her hands on her throat “and I am afraid that he will do it again”.
