Man ordered not to enter ex-wife’s bedroom at their Clare home following row over shower

A judge in Clare has ordered a man not to enter his ex-wife’s bedroom at any time as part of conditions attached to a two month suspended prison term imposed following a row over the use of a shower on their child’s Confirmation day.

At Ennis District Court, Judge Adrian Harris imposed the bedroom ban on the man after finding him guilty of breaching the terms of a Protection Order that his ex-wife has obtained against him.

Judge Harris said he found that the man had put his ex-wife in fear by video-recording their interaction with his phone during the shower row in May of this year.

The couple are separated but continue to live in the family home with their children - the couple sleep in separate bedrooms.

The woman wept in court as Judge Harris found her ex-husband guilty of breaching the Protection Order on two dates in May and September of last year.

The conditions of the suspended sentence include that the man only communicates with his ex-wife by text and only then about the co-parenting of their children.

Judge Harris imposed a separate one-month prison sentence, which was also suspended with the same conditions, relating to a separate breach which occurred at the family home on September 3, 2023.

Solicitor Daragh Hassett, for the accused, said that his client continues to assert his innocence.

The couple, the court heard, have obtained Protection Orders against each other in the Family Law Court.

In evidence, the woman alleged that her ex-husband had video-recorded her naked in the en suite bathroom of her bedroom on the morning of their child's Confirmation when her ex-husband was wanting to use the shower.

The woman said that she told her ex-husband to get out of the en suite bathroom as she had no clothes on.

The woman made a complaint to gardai over the incident and after his arrest the man told gardai in a statement: "I had my phone out and recorded the floor and at no stage did I record her naked”.

The man told gardai that his ex-wife told him "You are filming me naked I am ringing the gardai” and that he replied (to her) "I am not filming you naked”.

In evidence, Garda Michael Haugh said the man handed over his phone which contained the video footage.

He said that you couldn’t see the woman in the footage as the camera was pointed towards the floor and it showed only a glimpse of the woman’s feet for a split second.

Garda Haugh agreed with Mr Hassett that the audio was a recording of an unhappy couple with "over and back" between them.

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In evidence, the man said that his ex-wife wasn’t naked and he didn’t point the phone camera at her.

Mr Hassett said that his client wanted to use the en-suite shower on the date as the shower was the only electric shower in the house and he said that the Irish phenomenon, the immersion, wasn’t on for the other shower to be used ahead of the Confirmation mass.

The solicitor said that couples who are estranged have gotten into the habit of recording each other in conversation and he said that in this case both parties have since given undertakings to a judge in the Family Law Court not to video each other when interacting.

In evidence the woman said: “I am really afraid of him - I don’t know when it is going to turn. He has a horrible, nasty temper.”

She added: "He is so angry with me. I am on edge all day. Even tonight now, I have to go home and I don’t know what I have to face and when he is going to turn against me. He has threatened me numerous times. I know he is not happy with the separation - he is very angry with me."

The woman told the court that her ex-husband "has lost all control over what I do and where I go and he has just can’t cope with it."

She added that throughout the separation it has been an "absolute nightmare".

She stated: "I have been through hell, absolute hell for the last 18 months. All I wanted to do was end the marriage and move on with my life. I am only in the house because I want to raise the children in their own home, in their beds where they are safe, in their community with their friends. I just want this marriage over - I never wanted to be here.”