*The matter was before Ennis District Court.
A WARRING couple going through the throes of separation both remain in the family home with their children and communicate only via email, a court has heard.
At Ennis District Court, Judge Alec Gabbett told the couple that the really sad part of their situation “is that ye’re children are watching all of this”.
Judge Gabbett said that with the children living under the same roof as the two “I don’t know how ye can subject ye’re children to this”.
He said, “They might not be as robust as you think and it is a form of emotional abuse believe it or not and there is certainly emotional abuse going between two of you”.
Judge Gabbett said that the children “are probably tip-toeing around ye” and “I really urge both of you as parents today to consider the welfare of your children”.
Judge Gabbett made his comments when dismissing a criminal charge against the husband that he had breached a Protection Order obtained by his wife in a row over brown sauce and fallen photographs of her at the family home.
Judge Gabbett said that while the wife may view the fallen photos of her and the brown sauce around the kitchen as ‘sinister’, he was of the view that what occurred arose from marital disharmony.
Judge Gabbett said that he was not satisfied that there was any criminal intent by the husband to put his wife in fear.
He said, “This has happened because ye can’t move out of the house because of financial circumstances or perhaps you just don’t want to – I don’t know which it is”.
He said, “Who is going to blink first and move out? This is much more common than you realise and a particular problem in Clare for some reason”.
Judge Gabbett said that the allegation against the husband was at the extremely low end of Protection Order breaches.
Judge Gabbett said, “The marriage is over and the divorce needs to happen”.
In evidence, the woman said that she was left “terrified” after returning home to find wall photos only of herself on the floor and brown sauce had been sprayed around the kitchen. She said, “The house had been thrashed”.
The woman said that her husband locks himself in his room every day “and I knocked on the door and I said ‘I know what you did and I know why you did it and there is a mess downstairs that needs to be fixed”.
The woman told the court, “I just want peace in my own house. It is not what he did, it is why he did it”.
In evidence, the husband said that in relation to the fallen photos “I had nothing to do with that, those photos keep falling off”.
The man said that the brown sauce was on the floor after a bottle of brown sauce fell on the floor while he was making a late-night sandwich.
He said that he did clear up the mess in the kitchen.
Asked by his solicitor Daragh Hassett had he put his wife in fear, the man replied ‘no’.
The husband said, “In the house I am like a prisoner. I lock the door every night because I don’t trust what she is going to do next to be honest”.
The man said that he had blocked his wife on WhatsApp and on his phone and they communicate via email as a mediator told them they must keep an agreed line of communication open.
Mr Hassett said that the wife had secured a Protection Order in court last year when her husband wasn’t present.
Mr Hassett said that his client subsequently contested a Safety Order and that case didn’t go to court after both sides provided undertakings to behave themselves around each other.
Mr Hassett said that two “are in the throes of separation”.
Under cross examination from Mr Hassett, the wife denied she had to come to court to give evidence in order to get her husband out of the house.
She said, “Of course I don’t want to live in this situation – half the house is mine and half the house is his. He ended the marriage 18 months ago but he is still there”.
She said, “I can’t leave because of my children. I have tried everything to find somewhere to live”.
