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A working mother has told a court that she ‘lost the plot’ after a drug dealer told her that her sons’ drug debt would be wiped if she followed him into the toilets at a filling station.
At the Family Law Court, the Clare woman said that after that incident she never again paid a drug debt incurred by her two sons, who are both addicts.
The woman said, “Every single day, there are drug dealers at the door. I am a nice person but I feel that I am getting angrier and angrier at the drug dealers on the door”.
The woman said that she used to work two jobs to pay off her sons’ drug debts.
Recalling the petrol station incident, she said, “When I went to pay one drug dealer at a petrol station and he said to me ‘I will write the debt off if you come into the toilets with me’ I lost the plot”.
She said, “They know that I don’t pay anymore. The threats are becoming more threatening”.
Asked by Judge Adrian Harris has she reported the threats to the GardaÍ, the woman said that one of the men to have threats is being investigated for serious crime and a senior Garda told her that “We can’t keep you safe if you make the statement”.
The mother was seeking a Protection Order against her two adult sons who live in the family home and remain in active addiction.
In her statement seeking the Protection Orders, the woman said that “I live in fear every day that I will find one of my sons dead and I can’t cope with this anymore”.
She said, “I go to work every day not knowing what I am going to come home to”.
The woman said that she suffers from stress constantly. The mother said that her sons “are fabulous sons when they are not in addiction”.
The woman said, “My home has been subjected to constant intimidation from drug dealers and I have had threats to burn my house down, to rape me, my windows have been broken numerous times and my front door has been broken in”.
She said, “Both my sons fight violently with each other as they are drunk on a daily basis – I can’t separate two men fighting”.
The woman said that “I want my sons to find peace because they are so loved but despite all my efforts over the years I still live in fear”.
The woman said that “the trauma I live with is absolutely heart-breaking” and she said she never thought it would come to this.
The woman said that “my two beautiful sons have been destroyed by addiction”.
She said, “I don’t live anymore – I just walk around trying to get through the day without one of my sons dying”.
Addressing Judge Harris, the woman said, “Please help me. I no longer feel at peace in my daily life”.
The woman said that she was not seeking a Barring Order against her sons at this time.
She said that one of her sons has sold all his clothes and his shoes to fund his addiction.
She said, “He even sold his sister’s clothes, he has sold everything we have in the house”.
If the two men breach the Protection Order they can be arrested without warrant by Gardaí.
Judge Harris adjourned the two cases to November.
