Family Law: Women behaved like “tramps” Laois judge says

Two women behaved like tramps during the handover of a child, a Judge has said.

A woman (37) with a Laois address appeared in court accused of assault, engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour, breaching a safety order and theft at a location in Laois on November 30 last. 

Garda Declan Quinlan told a sitting of Portlaoise District Court that gardaí had received a call about an alleged assault on the date in question at around 5pm. He said there was a counter allegation made in relation to the incident and there had been “toing and froing between the lot of them”. 

The incident involved the defendant who was handing over her young son to her ex-partner who had his fiance and mother in his car. Both women in the car filmed the incident on their phones.  

Garda Quinlan said mobile phone footage had been captured by the mother and the fiance.The man told gardaí that his mother had been assaulted. She was taken to hospital as a precaution. 

Garda Quinlan obtained footage from the son of the accused, a nearby shop and the partner of the child’s father. He was also given photographs of bruises on the partner’s arm and on the mother’s arm. 

Solicitor Josphine Fitzpatrick said there had been an agreement in place in relation to the collection and dropping off of the child. 

The man’s mother gave evidence of arriving to collect the child and filming the incident on her phone from the rear seat of the car. “I recorded it for my son,” she said. “She was like an animal, she grabbed the phone out of my hand,” the woman said. “She went to bite the face off me,” the woman stated. 

“I had an operation on my shoulder. She done a ligament and a tendon on my shoulder,” she said.  

She said she had been filming in the car when the woman reached in and grabbed her phone. She said she was assaulted when she got out of the car to try and recover her phone which was then taken back by her son. “She came running at me,” the woman said. 

She said the woman was “like an animal” and had pushed her up against the car. 

Judge Andrew Cody warned the defendant that “this isn’t gogglebox” as she had been “throwing her eyes up to heaven” and “shaking her head during the evidence”. 

Ms Fitzpatrick asked the lady if she still had her phone. She said she did because her son got it back. 

The son was next to give evidence. He recalled collecting his child and putting the child in the back of the car. He said the accused “ran across the road shouting abuse at my partner.” 

“She snatched a phone out of my mother's hand and tried to delete the video,” he said. 

The man said the woman was “tussling with my mother” on the street. 

Ms Fitzpatrick asked the man why his fiance was there. He said they were just coming back from town. 

She produced an agreement from TUSLA dated in April which said he shouldn’t have his fiance there during collections and drop offs. 

“That was after this happened,” the man said. 

Ms Fitzpatrick suggested the partner had called the defendant over to the car. She said the woman could be heard saying, “Hiya, do you like that?” She asked what she was referring to. She said she was showing the defendant her engagement ring and “taunting” her. 

The man said his ex partner doesn’t want him to move on. 

Ms Fitzpatrick suggested there would have been no reaction at all had the fiance not been involved. She noted the woman had said: “Do  you know what the worst of it is? Your brother and your ex, you couldn’t keep either of them.” 

Ms Fitzpatrick said the man hadn’t asked his partner to refrain from making comments. 

“I am not going to shout around my son,” he said. 

Ms Fitzpatrick told him that his partner had said “that’s what junkies look like” to the mother of his son. 

“She smashed the phone out of my mother’s hand. I smashed  it back,” he said. He said this was a breach of the safety order. 

Ms Fitzpatrick said “the person instigating it all” wasn’t the man or his ex partner but his current partner. She said the accused would not have been at the car had she not been called over. 

She asked Judge Andrew Cody to dismiss the breach of the safety order as she said the man was not put in  fear. “At no stage did he confirm to the court that he was in fear,” she said. 

She also said the theft couldn’t be proved as it was not the intention of the accused to permanently deprive the woman of the  phone which was “almost immediately” returned to the woman.

In relation to the assault, Ms Fitzpatrick said medical documents had detailed a chest pain and there was no mention of assault in the “running commentary” from the man’s partner in the video shown in court. 

Judge Cody dismissed both the theft charge and the breach of the safety order. 

The woman took to the stand and apologised for running across the road. She said the man was told to record exchanges but the whole family were not included. She said it was intimidating and she denied attempting to bite anyone.

“That’s disgusting. Why would you want to bite someone?” she asked. 

She said “a junkie” is not a nice word to call anybody. “They knew that’s my trigger,” she said. 

Ms Fitzpatrick said the partner of the man should be called to give evidence. However, gardai did not seek to put her on the stand. 

Judge Cody asked that the lady be brought into the courtroom for sentencing. He said had the woman been called to give evidence he would have bound her to the peace for a year. 

“The two ladies, and I regret to say this, they behaved like tramps, the two of them.” said Judge Cody. 

He said the current partner was showing her engagement ring and clearly taunting the ex partner. He said had she been charged with engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour he would have convicted her. He described her actions as inflammatory. He said the man’s mother was assaulted by being pushed and he asked about previous convictions. 

Sgt Kirby said the accused had two previous, one for theft and one for breaching an order. 

Ms Fitzpatrick said there were no serious injuries in the assault. She said had the man’s fiance not behaved as she did the case would not be before the court. 

Judge Cody ordered a probation report and asked that the  woman be assessed for restorative justice. He told the man that in future if he was collecting his son he should leave his partner at home. “She is part of the problem. She was clearly taunting and behaving like a tramp,” he said. 

The case was adjourned back to Portlaoise District Court on September 18 for a probation and welfare report.