A JUDGE has granted a protection order under the Domestic Violence Act to a man against his wife, who the court heard had thrown their pet rabbit across the room.
At the Family Law Court, Judge Alec Gabbett granted a protection order to the man after he told the court that his wife had thrown the family pets as a means of trying to provoke him.
The man explained to Judge Gabbett that “if she is in the mood, she will try to provoke me so she will go for things that she knows that will upset me.”
He told the court that “she will either try to knock over the TV – and the rabbits was a big one – she would always go at the rabbits.”
“She would say ‘I will set them free. We don’t need them. We should throw them out’.”
The man said that his wife had once taken a rabbit from its cage and thrown it across the room.
“What happened to the rabbit?” Judge Gabbett asked.
“The one she threw? He was okay,” the man replied.
“Explain to me exactly. She threw the rabbit and did it hit something?” the judge further queried.
“He landed on the ground,” the man answered. “She caught him by the neck – she didn’t throw him at the wall. She threw him up in the air and he went across the room.”
“And bounced off the ground?” the judge asked, to which the man replied “yes”.
The man told the court that his wife did this “to upset me and provoke a reaction”.
Judge Gabbett told the man he struck him by his nature as a “mild mannered man”, adding that he admired that the man had come to court.
The judge asked if “the issue is that you are currently in a relationship that is abusive? That is what you are in?”, to which the man replied “yes”.
Judge Gabbett said that the man was seeking the protection order as he alleged that his wife slaps him, hits him, “and threatens your animals and tries to damage your property”.
Judge Gabbett said that he was happy to grant the protection order, which is done on an ex-parte basis where the other side is not present.
The man told Judge Gabbett that he had overhead his wife on the phone to a local women’s refuge stating that she doesn’t feel safe. On hearing this, the man told the judge, he phoned his sister and said that he was worried his wife may allege that he beat her, at which point his sister advised calling the Gardaí.
The woman, who says she is currently residing in a local women’s refuge, has also obtained a protection order against her husband, telling Judge Gabbett that she is scared of the man.
“There are two sides to every story,” the judge said.
Protection orders are temporary in basis and remain in place pending a hearing of applications for date limited safety orders.
Judge Gabbett said that the safety order application hearing can take place in May, where both sides can give evidence.
