Father remanded in custody after breaching bail conditions to see his children

A father has been remanded in custody after allegedly breaching bail and a protection order in attempt to catch a glimpse of his estranged children.

Inspector John Spiteri arraigned the man, a taxi driver, before magistrate Marseanne Farrugia on Monday afternoon, charging him violating a set of bail conditions which had stipulated that he could not be within 1 km of his estranged wife.

After his arrest, the accused had released a statement to the police. Asked hwy he had gone to his former wife’s Marsaskala home, the man had explained that he had not seen two of his three children in five years and was hoping to catch a glimpse of them.

There was no court-imposed protection order for his children, clarified the inspector. He explained that the accused’s supervised access vists to one of his children had been cut off after the man had caused an incident in March.

The other two children had refused to meet him over the past five years, the court was told.

On this particular occasion, the man said he had accepted a fare for a passenger who wanted to be dropped off 10 doors down from his ex-wife’s home, he told the police in his statement. He had then lingered around for a “short while” in the hope of seeing his children.

“He couldn’t not wait a few minutes to try and see his kids,” the inspector reported the man as having told him.

Lawyers Franco Galea and Ilona Debono, appearing for the accused, entered a not guilty plea. Bail was not requested at this stage.

Names are being withheld.