*A protection order was granted.
A JUDGE has granted a five-year Safety Order under the Domestic Violence Act to a woman after hearing that her then partner brandished a loaded shotgun in her direction during a row and also hit her when she was pregnant.
In a separate case at the Family Law Court, Judge Alec Gabbett has granted a Protection Order to a Limerick woman after she was victim to a ‘bite’ assault by her ex-partner.
In the ‘loaded shotgun’ case, the woman said after the man accused her of being unfaithful, she attempted to leave the home.
The woman told Judge Gabbett that the man then “became violent and erratic and brandished a loaded shotgun in my direction when I was standing by the car. He tried to smash the car window with the stock of the gun. He then forced me to give me his keys”.
Solicitor for the woman, Ann Gillane said that Gardai have since taken the shotgun from the man.
Judge Gabbett said, “That was a very frightening incident. They were grounds enough for a Protection Order. You were under a lot of control here”.
The woman said that the man first got violent towards her “not long after I found out that I was pregnant where we got into an argument where he accused me of being unfaithful”.
She said, “After one argument, I told him that I wanted to leave the relationship. He got really aggressive and as I tried to exit the tractor, he drove off and I was clinging by the side of the tractor”.
In another incident the woman described how the man “kicked her out of the house”.
She said, “He grabbed me by the throat. I was trying to push him off and he hit me just above the eye. When I finally pushed him off, I ran up to a neighbour’s house to get away from him. He grabbed me and slammed me into a small wall”.
Judge Gabbett said, “You must have been three or four months pregnant at this stage?” and the woman replied ‘yes’.
The woman agreed that the man “is a paranoid individual”.
Judge Gabbett said that “unusually I will grant a five year order” in the case and said that the man can make an access application to see the couple’s baby. The man was not present in court for the ex-parte application.
In relation to the second domestic violence application, a Limerick woman provided photographic evidence from her mobile phone showing bite marks on her body from an assault by her ex-partner.
Judge Gabbett said, “I see three or four bite marks in this photograph. One bite was so bad you had to go to hospital because of the risk of infection”.
Judge Gabbett said, “The picture I get is that he is quite aggressive. He says terrible things to you and he physically assaulted you by biting you”.
The woman said that the Gardai are investigating the bite assault and “forensics” have been to her home.
Judge Gabbett told the woman that the Limerick man has made “threatening messages and voice notes to you that he would kill you”.
The woman said that her ex-partner was previously locked up “for a firearm”. Judge Gabbett granted the woman a Protection Order.
