A man has been charged with breaking the arm of his estranged partner’s 12-year-old daughter.

Oswald Francis Natalin Bennetti, 36, of St Paul’s Bay, pleaded not guilty to causing serious injuries to the girl and slightly injuring her mother, Christina Joyce, on Saturday at about 6.15am.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale accepted the prosecution’s request to allow Ms Joyce, who is Irish, to testify during the arraignment as she, her 12-year-old daughter and two-year-old child planned to return to Ireland today.

“He called me on Friday when he was at work and I told him that I had tickets to Dublin,” she said. Later, Mr Bennetti, the father of her two-year-old, told her he was moving his things out but, an hour later, asked whether he could return to their St Paul’s Bay apartment until she left.

“I told him no problem. He came back and we had a few drinks while the children were asleep in a pull-out bed. He went back to where the children were and shouted ‘pig’ in my 12-year-old’s ear,” Ms Joyce testified.

An altercation ensued and Mr Bennetti twisted her daughter’s arm, breaking it, the witness said.

Her daughter, with her plastered left arm in a sling, testified that she had told her mother he had called her “pig” and her mother confronted Mr Bennetti.

“He tried to hit her and I went between the two and started hitting him. He grabbed my arm and twisted it back and I hit him with my other hand.”

Ms Joyce admitted that her daughter and Mr Bennetti did not see eye-to-eye and that she had told him that he needed to work on that relationship for theirs to work.

She told the magistrate that, about a month ago, she had decided to go Ireland for two weeks for Christmas to see her 14-year-old son, who was living with her sister. However, she eventually decided that she would be moving there permanently.

On being questioned by lawyer Noel Bartolo, who appeared for Mr Bennetti as legal aid, Ms Joyce said that just before the argument, she had told her partner that her daughter suggested selling his possessions to get money.

“She said that because, about three years ago, when we lived in Ireland, he had taken her laptop and other possessions and sold them to get money to come to Malta,” she said.

When asked by Magistrate Depasquale whether she was willing to forgive him, shedding tears, Ms Joyce said: “Not right now, no. I’m very angry and very upset and want to go home.”

Mr Bennetti was granted bail. Police Inspector Gabriel Micallef prosecuted.