A man facing charges of beating a woman and holding her against her will in a Dublin hotel has been refused bail. Robert Melia, of no fixed abode, was unable to make a court appearance earlier in the week after being hospitalised.

This incident is alleged to have happened on Sunday May 19th at a hotel on Dorset Street in the city. Gardai were called after a half-dressed woman presented herself to reception in a state of distress.

She told detectives that she had willingly gone to the hotel room of Robert Melia to take some drugs but that an argument broke out shortly afterwards. She claimed she tried to leave but said the room was locked and that she was strangled and punched in the face.

She also told them he had threatened to "kill her and chop her up" before she made her escape through a first floor window.

Earlier in the week Dublin District Court was told how the accused could not appear in court because he had been hospitalised. The 47-year-old spent 5 days in Beaumont Hospital under armed guard and was pushed into court today in a wheelchair after breaking his ankles.

An application for bail was refused. He has been remanded in custody to appear in court again next Thursday.