A Birkirkara man has been charged with injuring his wife after he hit her because he didn’t want her watching an episode of Xarabank.

Carmel Mallia, a 45-year-old taxi driver, was remanded in custody and denied bail after a court heard how he slightly injured his wife following an argument regarding the popular discussion show last Friday, TVM reports.

The argument began because Mallia allegedly did not want his wife watching last Friday’s episode of Xarabank, which revolved around a discussion on domestic violence and the murder of Chantelle Chetcuti.

Mallia reportedly did not want his wife watching the episode because she might “get ideas into her head”.

https://www.facebook.com/xarabank/videos/510640236499244/

Above: the episode in question.

Mallia was also charged with threatening his wife, causing her to fear violence against her and breaching bail conditions that included a protection order in favour of his wife.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and asked for bail, which prosecutors argued should not be given due to his untrustworthiness, the grave nature of the charges against him and due to the fact that his wife still needed to testify against him.

Magistrate Rachel Montebello presided over the case.

This latest attack comes during a week of soul-searching for the Maltese public on the topic of domestic abuse after a mother was murdered by the father of her children and many more first-hand accounts of domestic violence have been laid bare.

Do you think Malta is taking its domestic violence problem seriously enough?