A court has banned publication of the name of a 36-year-old Maltese nobleman charged with violently resisting arrest while drunk on Sunday morning in St Julian’s.

The Count’s lawyer requested the ban on the ground that his client’s girlfriend has a medical condition. She is expected to be charged at a later date with assaulting a police officer.

The couple’s lawyer, Joseph Arrigo, did not provide details of the medical condition but told Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras that he knew the basis for his request was not legally sound. He said he left it up to her make the decision.

The magistrate asked Police Inspector Luke Bonello, who investigated the case, if he had any objections and he replied it did not make any difference to him.

She agreed to the request, prohibiting the naming of both the nobleman and his girlfriend.

Inspector Bonello told the court that on Sunday at around 7am police received a phone call about a man and woman who were aggressive towards a taxi driver.

The man damaged the taxi and then refused to give his particulars to police when they arrived on the scene, the inspector said.

The man’s girlfriend punched a police officer in the face and would be charged with the offence, he added.

The man, who when giving his particulars to the court said he was a journalist and writer, denied threatening police officers, violently resisting arrest, damaging the taxi, breaching the peace, disobeying police orders and being drunk in public.

Dr Arrigo said his client had been beaten up by a group whose identity would be revealed in the course of the proceedings.

Magistrate Galea Sciberras granted him bail against a personal guarantee of €2,000 and said the man’s injuries, which included a black eye, be recorded and examined by a court-appointed expert.