‘You simply cannot hit your child,’ judge tells father, adding it is ‘not permitted in this country’

A judge has told a man “you simply cannot hit your child”, adding it is “not permitted in this country”.

Judge Cephas Power was speaking at Dublin District Family Court, where the man admitted he had a “bad temper” and had slapped his daughter on a number of occasions in recent months.

The man’s wife was seeking a barring order and a safety order against him on Friday.

The woman, who had previously been granted an interim barring order against her husband, told the court the man had not been violent towards her but was seeking a barring order, which would continue to exclude him from the family home, mainly on behalf of their daughter.

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The woman said her husband had become “violent” towards their daughter while she was out working and she had started to take notes of incidents of violence as well as photographs of injuries sustained.

The woman said on one occasion the man had slapped their daughter and the girl had subsequently told her she had “lost interest in life and didn’t want to live”.

The woman detailed other incidents of slapping, including one that left their daughter’s gum and lip bleeding and a separate occasion where her husband “dragged her by her hair” into their bathroom.

She told the court she had decided to go to the Garda and Tusla earlier this month after the man allegedly asked their daughter to “lift up her T-shirt, to show her chest and whether he could touch it”.

She said her daughter refused to do this and bit his finger as “his hand was about to touch [her]” and he slapped her.

The woman said her daughter had previously mentioned similar behaviour from her father a year ago but she “didn’t think it was a serious matter” and believed her husband was “just messing around with her”.

The woman said she had since been having “difficult conversations” with her daughter as she was going through puberty and also told her husband that “he cannot do that”.

She added that a child specialist from Tusla had been in touch and there was due to be further contact in the coming weeks.

The couple are both foreign nationals and an interpreter was present in court for the hearing.

The man told the court he accepted he had a bad temper and said his daughter “was not on her best behaviour”.

“She’s not really into study and only wants to buy stuff,” he said. “Sometimes I can’t control my temper so I hit her.”

The man denied he had tried to touch his daughter’s chest and added he did not know how to discipline his child.

Judge Power told him: “You simply cannot hit your child, it is not permitted. You can’t physically discipline your child . . . it is not permitted in this country . . . You can’t slap your child in the face, or anywhere else for that matter. That’s a concern for the court.”

The judge said the court was directing a section 20 report – which are completed by social workers and are concerned with the welfare of the child and how the child can best be supported.

The report would compel Tusla to report back to him within four weeks and direct “what, if any, action must be taken in relation to the care of the child”, the judge added.

Judge Power said the court was adjourning the barring order application until a later hearing in December but said it was granting a safety order for six months, with a number of conditions.

The order sets out that the man is not to use or threaten to use violence or put in fear the woman or child and is not to hit or slap his daughter “for any reason”.

The order also includes that the man is not to be in the presence of the child unsupervised.

Judge Power said the man is to work with Tusla and follow its directions and undertake a parenting course and provide proof of that in four weeks.

He said the woman could come back to court and apply for an interim barring order before the hearing in December “if things aren’t working out”.