Gordon Deegan
A man refused a request from his wife, who was suffering from two minor heart attacks, to call an ambulance, a court has heard.
At the Family Law Court in Ennis, the woman alleged that she was suffering from chest pains at home when she sought assistance from her husband.
The two are married over 40 years and have previously given undertakings in court not to enter each other’s bedrooms and bathrooms at their home.
In her application for a Protection Order against her husband, the woman said he had refused her request for an ambulance.
The woman told Judge Mary Larkin: “I had to call the ambulance myself, and I was brought to hospital.”
Diagnosis
The chest pains were later diagnosed as two minor heart attacks on examination at hospital.
The woman told Judge Larkin: “He drinks heavily, shouts at me and calls me nasty names. He knows all my movements and where I have been. I am afraid of him."
Judge Larkin granted the woman the protection order and also granted the husband a protection order after he alleged that his wife hit him with a frying pan.
He said: “She told lies about me. She said I was abusive and roaring and shouting at her and that I was drinking. She is constantly roaring and shouting at me."
Adults
Addressing both parties, Judge Larkin told the two: “You are adults and I don’t see you behaving like adults at the moment. You would want to learn how to live together and accommodate each other.”
The woman doesn’t drive and revealed that her husband passed her out in a car and left her at the roadside for a previous court appearance by the two.
The woman stated: “The second last time in court I had to get a bus and he passed me out on the road and would not pick me up."
In response, Judge Larkin said “for God’s sake”.
Addressing the husband, Judge Larkin told him: “You will be dead one day and I hope that I won’t remember you as the man who wouldn’t give his elderly wife a lift in with someone else in the car. That is not a nice thing to say about yourself.”
Nothing in common
The man said that he and his wife have had nothing in common for the past 12 years.
Solicitor for the man, Colum Doherty said that “relationships have broken down and that matter can’t be resolved through domestic violence legislation”.
However, solicitor for the woman, Pamela Clancy stated that her client is subjected to ongoing abusive and very vulgar name-calling by her husband.
Ms Clancy stated that the two minor heart attacks suffered by her client are as a result of the stress of the situation.
Judge Larkin adjourned the case to September.
