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SALT LAKE CITY — A college student who claimed her parents were stalking her won a restraining order against them this month.
Aubrey Ireland, a student at University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, won a case against her parents for stalking in which the judge ordered they keep 500 feet away from her and not contact her until Sept. 23, 2013.
Ireland claimed her parents, David and Julie Ireland, installed monitoring software on her computer and phone, tracking her calls and keystroke. She said when they weren't Skyping with her, they frequently and unexpectedly traveled 600 miles to visit her at school.
"My mom has always been very overly involved," Aubrey Ireland told ABC. "And I would have to get on Skype all the time and show them that I was in my dorm room or like, there were nights I had to leave my Skype on all night and my mom would watch me basically sleep."
She also claims her parents went to her department head, saying their daughter abused drugs, was promiscuous and had mental issues to the point that they were going to request a court order for her treatment.
"They basically thought that because they were paying for my college tuition and living expenses that they could tell me what to do, who to hang out with and, you know, basically control all of my daily life," Aubrey Ireland said in the same ABC interview.
Aubrey Ireland took her case to court, where a judge handed down a restraining order against the couple. In response, they said they would no longer pay her tuition and living expenses and ordered she pay back the $66,000 they have already paid for her education. They say she is a good actor and that she is lying about what happened.
The Dean's List student was able to obtain a scholarship from the department.
"I never wanted this to happen," Aubrey Ireland said on ABC. "That's the last thing I wanted but I wasn't in control of my life at all anymore. I knew that they were holding me back emotionally, mentally and professionally. And that it got to the point where that basically my last option."
ABC was not able to reach the Irelands for comment.
