A JUDGE has granted a domestic violence protection order to a mother of an 11-day-old baby girl against the father of the newly born baby.
At the Family Law Court, a judge granted the woman the protection order after the judge said that the man was now threatening to come to the woman’s family home and take the baby away from her.
The judge told the court the grounds for the protection order application after reading the woman’s statement grounding her application, which is brought under the Domestic Violence Act 2018.
The judge asked the woman if there was any particular reason why the man was making this threat.
In reply, the new mother said: “He wants to see her, but my father won’t let him into the house because he is being abusive.”
The judge asked if “he has been abusing you in the relationship?”, to which the woman replied “yes”.
The young mother told the judge that the new baby girl is her first baby. The father was not in court to contest the ex-parte protection order application.
As part of her statement grounding her protection order application, the woman told the judge that the father of the baby is sending her “threatening and abusive messages” and she is “scared that something is going to happen”.
The court heard that the mother has been attending peri-natal mental health services and said that they advised her to contact the Gardaí concerning the threats being made to her.
The judge asked her: “Are you doing okay?”
From the witness box, the woman replied ’no’.
“It is a very difficult time for you. You need lots of rest to try to get yourself back on an even keel. It is a very difficult time so don’t be afraid to take any support you can,” the judge told her.
The woman told the judge that she is not sleeping, to which the judge replied “the last thing you need is this fella threatening you. You are doing everything right. Coming to court is the right thing to do.”
“I am happy to grant you the order because the last thing you need in this man roaring and shouting at you and being abusive.
“We can do a no contact order for Christmas, if he wants access to the child he can apply to the court.
“Don’t be worrying – it will all come right,” the judge told the mother.
The judge said that Gardaí can serve the protection order documentation on the man “and that should keep it at bay”.
“If he breaches the order and comes near you or abuses or shouts at you, just ring the Gardaí and the Gardaí will be able to sort it.
He told the mother to “take as much as help as you can. Have a lovely Christmas.”
