A 40-year-old man from Gudja was today jailed for a month after being found guilty of breaching the conditions of a previous court sentence and threatening his wife.

Inspector Arthur Mercieca said that on Wednesday morning, the man's wife called him to say that her estranged husband was banging on the door of her house and threatening her. He explained that a court had previously ordered the accused not to go to the matrimonial home, although he lives in a garage which is accessible from the house through a garden.

He said that the accused was allowed to see the children one day every week. The husband and wife, he said, communicated through one of their daughters, a nine-year-old.

Last Wednesday the wife prepared the children to go swimming and sent them to see their father in the garage. He sent them back with a message that he could not keep them for the whole day but only till 2 p.m.

The wife then alleged that he went to the house and started banging on the door and on a window. He also threatened and insulted her.

She called the police. The inspector said this was not the first time that the accused had ignored court orders.

The accused told the court that when he sent the children back, his wife did not let them in. They were locked out and started crying. That, he said, was what led him to go to the house.

He denied having caused damage.

Magistrate Miriam Hayman said the accused should have been more mature than to send messages to his wife through a nine-year-old girl, and he should have called the police instead of reacting in this manner.

The accused was then jailed for a month.