Woman in her 90s hospitalised for a week after being assaulted by her husband

A woman aged in her nineties was granted a court protection order against her similarly aged husband, who allegedly assaulted her necessitating treatment for a week in hospital.

She came before Kildare court, accompanied by a safeguarding social worker who relayed some of the proceedings for the woman because had some hearing difficulties.

The woman was seeking court protection claiming the husband has been violent and aggressive with her for years and used "filthy dirty talk” to her.

She said her husband goes to the pub and betting office. The woman said he punched her, took her stick and hit her with that.

She said she went to neighbours and an ambulance was summoned. She said she has a degenerative condition and had also lost significant weight.

Replying to Judge Desmond Zaidan who said he was sorry to hear of the woman’s troubles, the social worker said the woman’s consent would be needed  before her husband could be approached to talk.

The judge commented that a conversation with the husband would be helpful because “I want to understand why he is behaving like this.”

Granting an interim protection order against her husband who was not present or represented, the judge said it should be served by the gardaí.

Judge Zaidan also said he wanted to avoid a situation where the man breaches the order and then has to be arrested.

He said the HSE should do more than provide 30 minutes of help a day (to assist with washing and administering medication) for the woman and he said it would be far better to have the  woman looked after in her own home than to have to move to a residential facility.

He said people like the woman had helped build and were the foundation of the Irish State.