A homeless Syrian man with psychiatric problems was yesterday charged with threatening a 12-year-old girl after allegedly chasing her while she walked her dog in Msida.

The 43-year-old, who is not being named to protect his identity, chased the girl on Saturday morning after she saw him standing in a disused garage and was frightened, Police Inspector SaviourBaldacchino said.

The officer pointed out that the accused lived in a disused showroom near the locality’s Labour Party club.

The accused sat in the dock and muttered loudly to his interpreter and Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras asked him several times to quiet down.

Through his legal aid, lawyer Mark Anthony Mifsud Cutajar, the man pleaded not guilty to threatening the girl, violently resisting arrest, living as a vagabond, failing to look for employment, disobeying orders and failing to give his particulars to police.

Dr Mifsud Cutajar did not request bail as his client was unable to satisfy the conditions imposed and asked for him to be kept at the Forensic Unit at Mount Carmel Hospital, where he had recently been a resident.