*The case has been adjourned to Thursday.
A JUDGE has granted an Interim Barring Order (IBO) to a man to have his wife, and mother of their children, removed from the family home after the man found her smoking crack cocaine with a pipe in their bedroom with their three year old boy present in the home.
At the Family Law Court in Ennis, Judge Alec Gabbett granted the Interim Barring Order to the man after the man told the judge, “I don’t feel safe and I don’t feel safe for my kids”.
The man told the court that his wife has been addicted to crack cocaine for the last twelve months and has had drug addiction issues for the past three years.
He said that on February 12th he found his wife smoking crack cocaine in their bedroom with their three year old boy in the home at the time.
Judge Gabbett asked, “I see a lot of crack cocaine and I don’ know anything about it. Does she go unconscious? Could she burn the house down”.
Judge Gabbett asked the man “You don’t feel safe if she is in the house”.
The husband said after coming home from work “when I came into the room she was in the bed with just tinfoil around her, a lighter and a pipe. I called the Gardaí that night and they saw drug abuse with crack cocaine and Xanax”.
The man said “I found burn marks on the quilt in our bedroom”.
Judge Gabbett said, “That is the problem. What I am afraid of is that the place would go up”.
Judge Gabbett said to the man, “You want her out of the house”.
In reply the man replied “Yes”.
The man said, “She has been in and out of treatment facilities but she has never done a full stint, she has always left after a week or ten days”.
He said, “She has mental health issues and has been in the psychiatric units in Ennis and Limerick”.
Asked by Judge Gabbett if the woman had ever been physically violent to him or their children, the man replied “no”.
The couple are married and Judge Gabbett asked, “Is this the end of it”.
The man replied, “Yes – it has been in decline for the past three years”.
The application was made on an ex-parte with only the husband present in court and Judge Gabbett adjourned the case to Thursday to allow the woman to come to court to contest the interim barring order made.
Judge Gabbett told the man that the interim barring order will expire on Thursday and told him, “If you are not here it is gone”.
