“HE won’t leave me alone until he kills me or he’s in jail”.
Those are the words of a woman who has just come out of court where her former partner had been answering a charge of breaching a barring order.
Her hands are shaking as she lights a cigarette, but with the persuasion of her friend who supported her coming to court, she’s willing to talk to the Limerick Post – but only if we walk as far away as possible from the courthouse, quickly.
I can see her point. She sat at the back of the court while a Garda read her statement. But the accused man was not looking at the witness box, nor looking at the judge – he was staring at her. Unnerving to say the least.
Neither party is publicly named, lest that identify the victim or any children caught up in what is a fear-filled and violent situation.
The Garda gives evidence that there is a barring order, issued by the same court and judge the accused is now before, which should prevent this man from entering or seeking to enter the home the couple once shared.
The woman tells the court that she and her colleague arrived at the scene following a call out shortly after 3am to find the accused shouting abuse through the letter box of the house.
The Garda says she observed broken glass in the front garden and a damaged window, which the occupant of the house said was broken by the accused.
She gives evidence of having spoken to the man, describing him as “highly aggressive and intoxicated”. He was arrested and subsequently brought before the District Court.
The Garda gives evidence that the female occupant of the house informed her she was “in fear” and alleged the man had threatened to “burn the house down with her in it”.
“When I heard the glass breaking in the window, I didn’t know had he thrown a petrol bomb in. I was hiding in the kitchen at the back – he was banging on the door before that, demanding I let him see our three kids. One of the neighbours must have already called the guards because they arrived a few seconds after I heard the glass breaking.”
The young woman got the barring order against her former partner just a month ago, but says he doesn’t accept that it means he can’t come near her.
“He’s turned up loads of times, always drunk. He’s threatened to kill me, he’s kicked the front door trying to get in when I won’t answer it. By the time I try to call the guards, there’s no point because he’s left,” she says.
“He hit me and kicked me around the kitchen before I got the barring order. When he says he’s going to kill me, I believe it. He doesn’t give a f*** what orders the court makes.”
The man’s solicitor tells the judge that his client “has a severe drink problem” and is awaiting a bed in a treatment centre.
On giving an undertaking that he will obey the court order and have no communication of any kind with the victim, including on social media, by phone, or by text, the judge remands him on bail for a week and warns she expects to hear that he is in rehab next time the matter comes to court.
The judge warns the man that any move on his part to approach the woman or the children will see him on the fast-track to jail.
“I don’t think he cares,” the woman tells me. I ask what she will do now.
“Go home and keep the phone in my hand 24-7. What else can I do? There’s no one has room to take me and kids in – and anyway, they’re back at school. I have to try to pretend for them that we’re okay.”
– Court Reporting Scheme