A couple locked in a bitter separation are continuing to live under the same roof with their children and only communicate by email, a court has been told, reports Breaking News.
At Ennis District Court, Judge Alec Gabbett informed the pair that the most distressing aspect of their circumstances “is that ye’re children are watching all of this”, reports Breaking News.
Judge Gabbett said that with the children residing in the same house as both parents, “I don’t know how ye can subject ye’re children to this”.
He said: “They might not be as robust as you think, and it is a form of emotional abuse, believe it or not, and there is certainly emotional abuse goingon between the two of you,” reports Breaking News.
Judge Gabbett stated that the children “are probably tiptoeing around ye” and added “I really urge both of you as parents today to consider the welfare of your children”.
Judge Gabbett made the remarks while dismissing a criminal allegation against the husband that he had breached a Protection Order obtained by his wife following a dispute involving brown sauce and fallen photographs of her in the family home, reports Breaking News.
Judge Gabbett said that although the wife may have interpreted the fallen photographs and brown sauce spread across the kitchen as ‘sinister’, he believed the incident stemmed from marital breakdown.
Judge Gabbett said he was not convinced that the husband had any criminal intent to cause his wife fear, reports Breaking News.
He said: “This has happened because you can’t move out of the house because of financial circumstances or perhaps you just don’t want to – I don’t know which it is.”
He said, “Who is going to blink first and move out? This is much more common than you realise and a particular problem in Clare for some reason,” reports Breaking News.
Judge Gabbett described the claim against the husband as being at the very low end of alleged Protection Order breaches.
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Judge Gabbett said, “The marriage is over, and the divorce needs to happen,” reports Breaking News.
Giving evidence, the woman said she was left “terrified” when she returned home to find photographs solely of herself knocked to the floor and brown sauce splattered around the kitchen.
She said: “The house had been thrashed,” reports Breaking News.
The woman said her husband locks himself in his room daily, “and I knocked on the door, and I said ‘I know what you did and I know why you did it and there is a mess downstairs that needs to be fixed”.
The woman told the court: “I just want peace in my own house. It is not what he did – it is why he did it,” reports Breaking News.
In his evidence, the husband said regarding the fallen photographs, “I had nothing to do with that – those photos keep falling off”.
The man said the brown sauce ended up on the floor after a bottle dropped while he was preparing a late-night sandwich, reports Breaking News.
He said he cleaned up the kitchen afterwards.
When asked by his solicitor, Daragh Hassett, if he had placed his wife in fear, the man answered ‘no’, reports Breaking News.
The husband said, “In the house, I am like a prisoner. I lock the door every night because I don’t trust what she is going to do next, to be honest”.
The man said he has blocked his wife on WhatsApp and on his phone, and that they now communicate by email after a mediator advised them to maintain an agreed channel of contact, reports Breaking News.
Mr Hassett said the wife had obtained a Protection Order in court last year in her husband’s absence.
Mr Hassett said his client later challenged a Safety Order, and that matter did not proceed to court after both parties gave undertakings to behave appropriately towards one another, reports Breaking News.
Mr Hassett said the two “are in the throes of separation”.
During cross-examination by Mr Hassett, the wife rejected the suggestion that she had come to court to give evidence in an effort to have her husband removed from the home, reports Breaking News.
She said: “Of course I don’t want to live in this situation – half the house is mine and half the house is his. He ended the marriage 18 months ago but he is still there,” reports Breaking News.
She said: “I can’t leave because of my children – I have tried everything to find somewhere to live,” reports Breaking News.
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