A man with a severe alcohol problem who terrorised his former girlfriend’s family but was described by his lawyer as “not a bad man” was yesterday remanded in custody.

Renald Hayman, 32, of Senglea, had already been charged and sentenced over an incident in November 2012, involving another woman, where he slammed his ex-partner’s head into a court room notice board.

During the arraignment yesterday, Mr Hayman pleaded not guilty to injuring his new girlfriend on three occasions, in one of them seriously, threatening her, breaching bail, and breaching probation.

Lawyer Franco Debono, appearing for the victim, said the accused had terrorised her family, who were now living in fear of him, especially after an incident when he smashed the door of her father’s home.

He refuses to let her leave the house, gets drunk and then beats her up, he said, adding that a number of police reports about the violence had been filed.

Defence lawyer Lucio Sciriha, on the other hand, told Magistrate Aaron Bugeja that his client was “not a bad man” but had a very severe alcohol problem and became violent when drunk. He needed urgent help, the lawyer said.

He pleading not guilty to seriously injuring the woman but a request for bail was denied.