‘I can’t take it any more’: Woman gets protection order from granddaughter who she says is ‘beating’ her

A grandmother wept when seeking a protection order against her adult granddaughter whom she alleged is “beating me up” and “smashing up my home”.

“I can’t take it any more,” the distressed woman told Dublin District Family Court. Her husband died last year and she is struggling to cope, she said.

The latest incident occurred in recent days when she called gardaí after her granddaughter said she was “going to put my sittingroom window through to get into the house at me”.

Her granddaughter has mental health issues and is drinking on top of that, the woman said.

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The young woman’s mother lives elsewhere with two very young children and cannot cope with her older daughter, she added. The family have tried to get help for the young woman but she will not co-operate with their efforts, she said.

Judge Stephanie Coggins granted a protection order, returnable to May next, which restrains the granddaughter using, or threatening to use, violence against her grandmother.

The ex parte (one side only represented) application was among several before the judge on Friday seeking emergency orders under the Domestic Violence Act.

A protection order was granted to a mother who said she is “terrified” of her adult son “when he kicks off”. Aged in his 30s her son had been living elsewhere but has been evicted and is now homeless, she said. His children are in a homeless hostel, she added.

He was in her house recently to have a shower but “kicked off” with another of her sons, who lives there, she said.

“He is like this for years, he needs a lot of help, he has drug addictions and can be very violent. I’m terrified of him when he kicks off.” He assaulted his girlfriend in the past, she said.

The woman said she previously obtained protection orders against her son but had not sought any order barring him from her home. “I want to help him as well, there is good in him too.”

She hoped he would see a drug counsellor, she added.

“I’m getting too old for this. If he does not get help soon, I think locking him up is the only solution.”

A protection order was also granted to a young woman who said her former partner has been “tormenting” her over years.

In response to recent court orders directing payment of maintenance for their two children, one of whom has special needs, her ex sent her text messages saying he would not pay and would rather go to prison. He has inappropriate conversations with their daughter, has claimed she (applicant) is “making up” their son’s condition and has threatened to report her to the council, Tusla and the gardaí for “no reason”, she added. “He is tormenting me, this is seven years going on.”

In another case, the judge refused to grant either an interim barring order, or a protection order, to a young woman against her estranged husband.

The woman said she and their two children had their own home in a country town but, after her husband left her for another woman, she had to leave her home because he was sending people around at night “to kick the door in”.

Gardaí took her and the children to a women’s refuge, she said. That incident occurred more than a year ago and she and the children are now living with a relative in another location, she said.

Her ex-husband has not seen the children since but is seeking access to them which she opposes.

She said she is afraid of him, has blocked him on social media but he had made contact with her sister saying, if she would not let him see the children, there would be “consequences”, she added.

On the evidence, in the absence of a current threat to the woman’s safety, the application did not meet the threshold for either an interim barring order or a protection order, the judge said. The man is entitled to make an application for access, she added.

The woman can renew her interim barring order application when the matter returns to court in two weeks with both sides represented, the judge said.

In another application, a father who said there had been multiple breaches by his former partner of access orders to their child was given liberty to issue a summons over alleged breach of another order made last October.

The man said his ex has appealed Tusla reports containing findings in his favour. Two hours after they had reached agreement at court on access, his ex told him she was not honouring it and he believes she will continue to breach the orders, he said.

When the judge said, unfortunately, he would have “to keep going”, he said his concern is “how injured the child will be”.

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