KILDARE: Woman appears in court with bruising to her face and arms

A woman who turned up at Naas District Court with bruising to her face and arms applied for protection under family law legislation.

The woman, who is a native of South America and an Irish citizen, alleged she was locked in a room and pushed by her ex-husband from whom she is separated.

Judge Desmond Zaidan commented that he could see bruising to her face, eyes, forehead and arms.

The woman said she had also been verbally attacked  and she was struck in the eye by his forearm. The court heard the man still lives in the house.

The couple have two young children together.

“I was really in fear, I feared I wouldn't be able to leave the room.”

She said one of the children witnessed the entire incident.

She also said that he took her phone and would not give it back and he had taken the children's passports. She alleged he had paid someone to unlock her phone.

She also claimed he had taken her car and car keys and “wouldn’t give it back to me for a week.”

 “He thinks I’m having an affair,” she said, adding he had affairs when she was pregnant and not long after she had given birth.

The woman, who was previously granted a barring border, said she rang the gardaí saying he was the one being assaulted and he scratched his cheek to make it look like she had assaulted him.

She said he sometimes stays in Dublin and she and the children are in fear of going into the house.

One of the children won’t go into the kitchen or upstairs

The woman said she has no other relatives in Ireland apart from her children.

Her husband said she was having an extramarital affair and while he was previously unfaithful, they agreed on a trial separation and he sometimes lived in the family home and at times he lived in the family home.

He said they both agreed not to see anyone else but when he was out with one of the children, the child saw her leaving a gym with another man and he saw this too.

He added he was extremely upset because they had agreed not to see anyone.

He said he confronted her aggressively demanding answers and she denied the affair.

He added he grabbed her phone to ask her to ring him . He dragged her back into a room to shield the children from witnessing the incident but clothes stacked behind a door prevented it from closing.

He said he was hit in the face with a hot hair straightener and he indicated a burn mark on his cheek, handing in pictures of his injuries and a medical report.

He had been hit with clothes hangers by her and she battered him with a metal object in 2019.

He said he disputed her version of events and said she previously lunged at him and started to choke him.

He said he is homeless because she has changed the locks at the house and he has been paying the mortgage. The woman said she changed the locks “with garda permission”.

He runs a business from the house and had thousands of units of stock there.

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Judge Desmond Zaidan commented that the woman gave up everything in her native country to start a new life and had had beautiful children with her husband.

He granted a barring order to the woman and her husband will be allowed to retrieve his stock.

He said he would grant the order for a duration of one year. He said the case merited a three year barring order but he set it at one year because of the children. He told the man to be accompanied by a garda when collecting his stock and if he goes alone he will be in breach of the order.