Man charged with girlfriend's attempted murder

A man was this afternoon remanded in custody after he pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder his girlfriend early this morning. The court heard that Anthony Galea had an argument with his girlfriend Mary Rose Rapinett as they were coming out of the Labour Party club in Republic Street, Valletta at 12.45 a.m. Mr Galea allegedly punched Ms Rapinett in the face and tried to strangle her.It took two officers to pry his fingers off the woman’s neck, which was severely bruised. The man also pleaded not guilty to breaching the conditions of a previous release, being drunk in public and relapsing. Magistrate Miriam Hayman told legal aid lawyer Yana Micallef Stafrace that there was no need to make any pleas on bail because, taking the accused’s voluminous criminal record into consideration as well as the fact that the victim still had to testify, she was going to refuse it by saying “no way”.