Probation for mum-of-five who assaulted husband on access visit

AN access visit by a mother of five children to the family home which went wrong was recalled at the District Court sitting in Wexford.

Monica Stafford (48) stood accused of breaking a protection order in force at Newtown in Adamstown on June 5 earlier this year by assaulting her estranged husband Ulick Stafford.

Judge Gerard Haughton found the case against her proven but imposed no punishment after learning that the husband’s girlfriend was in the kitchen when the defendant arrived at the house.

Ulick Stafford gave his version of events in the witness box, telling the court how the five children were in the kitchen as he and his girlfriend prepared lunch.

His wife arrived earlier than expected and she became very abusive and aggressive, calling the other woman ugly and a bitch in front of the children.

He stated that he was hit on the side of the head and shoulder, while his girlfriend went into another room and called gardaí.

The matter was investigated by Garda Dan Hayden who arrested the accused and brought her to the barracks in New Ross.

He later took a statement from Ulick Stafford but not from the girlfriend as she did not wish to be involved.

When it was her turn to give evidence, Monica Stafford explained that she had bipolar disorder.

She told how she was treated for the condition at the hospital in Waterford and then found accommodation at An Tarman, the respite centre in the grounds of St John’s Hospital, in Enniscorthy.

The accused spoke of going to her bedroom in the family home to discover that her bedside table had been cleared and of finding a woman’s glasses there.

‘I did not know there was another woman in my bed,’ she said.

On the day of the breach of the protection order, she was driven to Newtown by a friend and noted the girlfriend’s car parked outside the house.

‘She was sitting at my kitchen table with my child,’ reported Ms Stafford, who accepted that she did become annoyed.

She denied carrying out any assault but told the judge that she had been assaulted herself in 2012 and again in 2013 when her husband put his hands around her neck.

Giving his decision, Judge Gerard Haughton said he accepted the evidence of Ulick Stafford and the court found that Monica Stafford had hit out at her husband.

However, the judge remarked that it was grossly insensitive to have the girlfriend in the house when Ms Stafford was due to come and visit the children.

This constituted a degree of provocation, the judge reckoned, recording a conviction but allowing the benefit of the Probation Act.