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A couple from Ireland married for nearly 40 years has banned each other from their bedrooms and bathrooms after the wife accused her husband of verbal abuse.
The Irish Sun reports that the wife decided to forgo a safety order in return for separate lives within their own home. The man had allegedly been verbally abusing her for 10 years and elbowed her in the face last December.
The relationship had left the woman distressed to the point of succumbing to drug overdoses. “Why should I have to put up with the abuse he has given me?” she said in court.
The husband was willing to accept the protection order, declaring their marriage “completely and truly over.”
“If she wants to have her Protection Order, I have no hesitation in letting her have it, but I want no more to do with this woman,” he said.
The judge granted the protection order, which in Ireland’s Domestic Violence Act “does not put the respondent out of the family home but does order him/her not to use violence, threats or molestation against the applicant.”
In court, the man expressed remorse. “I regret what has happened. I really am sorry what has happened. I really can’t turn back the clock.”
“She has said as much to me as I have said to her. All I want is the use of my bedroom and the use of my bathroom, up and down to the kitchen – that is all,” he said.
The couple lives in a council house, which is a form of social housing built by local municipalities.
The woman’s solicitor Pamela Clancy commented on their situation: “They are trapped in this house and things are difficult.”
Shiofra Hassett, solicitor for the husband, lamented, “It is an incredibly sad case.” Niña V. Guno /ra
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