Man tried to attack wife with rake as he ‘didn’t want her to go shoplifting’

A man who attempted to attack his wife with a rake told gardai that he wanted to stop her from going shoplifting.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons to protect the identity of his wife, appeared before Letterkenny District Court on Thursday following his arrest on Wednesday.

He is charged with breaching a barring order under Section 33 of the Domestic Violence Act after visiting the family home while intoxicated.

He is also charged with assaulting his wife and son and stealing alcohol worth €78 from a local shop.

Gardai told how they arrested the man at 6.48pm on Wednesday at an address in Letterkenny and he was charged at 8.50pm on the same day.

When charged, he told officers: “I did not swing the rake at my wife. I swung it at the car. I did not want her to go shoplifting,”

The man’s wife took to the witness box and told the court that she was in fear for herself and their children if the man gets drunk again.

She told Judge Ciaran Liddy: “I’m terrified. He has done this before. He got bail before and he still came back. I had to get a protection order for my own safety. He's a different man when he's not drinking alcohol.

"It's not fair on me and the kids as they are going back to school."

She added that her husband had swung the rake at her but that she jumped out of the way to prevent her from being struck.

Solicitor for the accused man, Mr Frank Dorrian, said the man had suffered a recent tragedy in his life and had taken to alcohol before signing himself into a psychiatric unit after this incident.

He said the accused also had access to another address where he could stay while the barring order was in place.

Judge Liddy said he understood the woman's concerns and was sympathetic to the situation but was granting bail.

He said he wanted a number of conditions to be placed on the accused including that he stay away from the woman, that he stay at a specific address.

The man was ordered to stay off intoxicants and to provide a phone number on which he can be contacted by Gardai.

The accused man addressed the court and asked Judge Liddy if he could publicly apologise to his wife. He said he had been going through a rough patch for the past six weeks and had ‘gone off the rails’.

His wife replied: “I’ll take your apology.”

Judge Liddy adjourned the case until September 11 and granted bail in the man’s own bond of €100.