A woman who fled her “very wealthy” husband in the United Arab Emirates, alleging she endured severe abuse, including “brutally” striking her caesarean section wound, has been granted a safety order in Dublin.
Dublin District Family Court heard on Monday the Irish woman married her UAE-based husband in recent years, where she lived for a period before leaving with their child after alleged physical abuse and “coercive control”.
A safety order hearing held on Monday was not attended by the husband in person or via video-link, though his counsel, Donagh McGowan, said all accusations, which are “somewhat historic in nature”, are fully contested by him.
McGowan sought an adjournment of the hearing as child abduction proceedings are before the High Court, alleging the woman “wrongfully” took the child to Ireland.
He told Judge Mark O’Connell that the father of the child is seeking their return to the UAE.
O’Connell opted to proceed with the safety order hearing, during which the woman alleged she endured “severe physical abuse and coercive control” since they married.
She claimed the abuse began in the UAE, though some incidents occurred in Ireland around the time of the birth of their child.
“As soon as we arrived in Ireland, he began to physically abuse me,” she told the judge.
“I had just had a C-section,” she said. “He brutally hit my C-section wound.”
She further alleged that her husband “locked” her in a room on one occasion, where she was confined “without a phone”.
During the course of their marriage, she claimed he gave her bruises “that nobody could see”.
“He burned me with a cigar on multiple occasions and told me that he would ensure nobody would believe me,” she said.
Asked where they were when her husband allegedly burned her, she replied that this happened abroad in a European country, though she maintained he has “savagely hit me in Ireland”.
Following the birth of her child, she told the court a public health nurse “witnessed his coercive control around me” while visiting them. The nurse subsequently referred concerns to Tusla, she said, adding that the matter is “ongoing”.
Noting the “power and wealth of his family”, she said she has received text messages from her husband, allegedly saying if she does not “behave”, she will “see”.
“I really do need protection, judge, he has promised me and threatened me that he will kill me,” she said.
Asked what her husband does for a living, she replied that he is a business owner, though added that his father is a “multimillionaire”.
Reiterating that child abduction proceedings are before the High Court, McGowan raised concern that the granting of a safety order “without evidence being tested and without all evidence being heard” might be taken as a “finding of fact”.
However, O’Connell said the woman’s protection could be safeguarded “without prejudice” to his client.
The judge noted McGowan’s client was correctly served notice of the safety order proceedings, but “isn’t here to answer the allegations”.
“I’m not sympathetic to you in relation to that point. He has decided not to be here, he knows what’s going on, and he has instructed you,” he said.
O’Connell granted a full safety order for a three-year period prohibiting communication with the exception of court-ordered access, which is facilitated online several days each week.
The woman’s solicitor, Sandra McAleer, told the judge the man is a “millionaire, possibly billionaire”, but is paying “zero maintenance for his wife and child”.
An application for maintenance was adjourned by O’Connell to a later date due to a lack of proof that papers were successfully received by the husband.