A man has been arrested and is being detained after pleading not guilty to harassing and threatening his former partner through incessant phone calls over a two week period.

The man, 44-year-old from Mtarfa, had attempted to call his former partner between the 6th and 19th February, regularly calling her to to meet up for a coffee, the woman said.

This comes after she had left their shared home – they are married but have been discussing separation proceedings for two years.

In front of Magistrate Monica Vella, Inspector Eman Hayman explained that the man had admitted to calling her repeatedly. Local telecommunications companies confirmed with police that he had called her 300 times from three different phone numbers over a 13 day period.

Though she was uninterested in restarting their relationship, she eventually decided to meet up with him. However, the woman says that her ex took her to a location different than the one they agreed upon, and began drinking alcohol. She says he then tried to make advances, which she refused.

Aside from the calls, the man had appeared at the woman’s workplace; this is when police arrested him.

The inspector said that the woman had previously received treatment for a drug problem, while defence counsel Patrick Valentino added that she had also lost custody of her 16-year-old daughter.

However, inspector Hayman said that the problem the woman was now facing was her former partner not leaving her alone.

The defence counsel argued that the arrest of the man was invalid since the pair were still married, but the court declared that the arrest was valid in light of the sheer amount of calls in such a short time frame – on average, around 23 calls every day.

Though the defence counsel argued that the phone calls were aimed at helping the woman, the court said they were not justified.

Bail was requested for the accused, with the prosecution objecting to it, leading to the court denying bail and ordering the names of both parties not to be released publicly.