Court bars man from home after mother says she lives in fear of him

DUBLIN: A judge at Dublin District Family Court on Friday barred a man from his mother's home for eight days after the elderly woman told the court she could no longer tolerate living with him.

In a sworn statement, the woman said her son lives in her home, drinks, and uses drugs. She said he has been taking drugs since he was a teenager and owns his own property. "There is terrible verbal abuse every day and I'm living in fear," she said, adding that her other children and grandchildren no longer visit because of his behavior.

The woman told the court she had previously applied for a protection order against her son but withdrew it after he promised to seek help for his addiction and treat her kindly. She said he did neither. Judge Gerard Furlong granted an interim barring order on an ex parte basis, removing the son from the home for eight days. Gardaí will serve the order, and the woman can ask officers to retrieve her house key. A full hearing, which the son is expected to attend, is set for early next month. At that hearing, the woman can seek a three-year barring order, Furlong said. "You're going to have the house to yourself now, the gardaí will be putting him out," the judge said. "If he appears just call the gardaí .. He is not to contact you or try to influence you at all."

In a separate case the same day, Furlong issued a protection order to a young woman who told the court her former partner threatened to post her nude photographs online. The woman said the two were together for several years and split in recent months. In her sworn statement, she described the relationship as "very abusive" and said that since the breakup he has been "non-stop harassing me with phone calls .. threatening to post my nude photographs and said he is going to kill me".

She told the court she walks on eggshells daily and rarely leaves the house because she believes he will kill her. "He's tried doing it in the past and I'm afraid for my life," she said. She said she contacted her GP about medication for her nerves and attends therapy for the trauma. The protection order, issued ex parte, bars the man from threatening or using violence against her, from putting her in fear through words or actions, and from stalking or watching her home. Furlong told the woman the threats, including the threat to share intimate images, are crimes she can report to An Garda Síochána. A full hearing, which the man is expected to attend, was set for a later date.

The woman said she wants the relationship closed and her former partner to accept that it is over. "I have to go to therapy because of the trauma I have been through," she said.