Woman granted protection over drone intrusion
A JUDGE has granted a protection order to a woman after hearing she is fearful of her ex-husband who was flying a drone outside her home last weekend.
At the family law court in Ennis, Co Clare, the woman told Judge Patrick Durcan she required the protection order as “my ex-husband is intimidating me”.
The mother said: “[Last Saturday] he was using a drone outside my home which I find very scary as I don’t know why he is doing this.”
The woman said her ex-husband “comes into the house when I am not there”.
She also said the man told a garda “he pays the rent on the house and he will go and come as he pleases”.
The woman described the man as “very controlling”.
Asked by Judge Durcan if she was fearful of him, the woman replied “yes, I am”.
Judge Durcan told the woman she has had two previous protection orders in the case. Protection orders temporarily give the applicant the court’s protection until a safety order is sought.
Protection orders are made on an ex parte basis with only one party present, while both sides give evidence in contested safety order applications.
In response to Judge Durcan’s comments, the woman said: “I let it go this time last year and we went in front of you as we made an agreement”.
Judge Durcan stated: “You would want to be more forceful this time. I am putting you under the court’s protection.”
In a separate case, a woman has secured a protection order after alleging her partner tried to strangle her while she was holding her three-week-old baby in her arms.
The woman told family law court in Ennis that earlier this year her partner tried to strangle her.
She said: “I had my threeweek-old baby in my arms when this happened.”
She said that more recently “my partner assaulted me in front of my three children. We were having an argument. He ran for me and pushed me over a chair and I knocked my head off the ground.
“I was passed out and I didn’t get back up until I heard my children screaming. When I got back up, he slapped me and pushed my head against the wall with force.”
She also said she went to the local Garda station.