A man has been remanded in custody after he allegedly breached a protection order by phoning his wife about their children.

The man, who cannot be named by order of the court to protect the identity of his three children, was arraigned by Inspector Matthew Spagnol before magistrate Gabriella Vella this morning.

The court was told that the man’s estranged partner was the subject of a protection order, prohibiting the accused from making any contact with her. He had called his wife to settle access and maintenance issues and in so doing had breached this order.

The man was charged with using moral or psychological violence against his ex-wife, causing her to fear violence, breaching a protection order and insulting or threatening the woman.

Defence lawyer Matthew Brincat told the court that the man feels that he is being estranged from his three children. “It does not warrant that the accused remains arrested.” Doing so would cost him his job, said the lawyer.

Parte Civile lawyer Ishmael Psaila agreed that if the accused loses his job it will cause unnecessary suffering for the children. “But the problem is that the accused failed to obey a court order and this means that the accused can’t be trusted. At the present stage it would be very risky to allow the accused bail.”

Brincat argued that there was no aggression or physical contact at all and that the man had to communicate with his estranged partner because of the children, to arrange for access and so on.

The court, in view of the serious nature of the charges and the breach of the protection order, denied the man bail.