A New London man facing charges that he beat, tied up and locked a 10-year-old in a closet, pleaded not guilty Wednesday during a brief appearance in New London Superior Court.

It was 41-year-old Michael Gregor’s first appearance in New London’s Part A court for serious crimes since his March 23 arrest by New London police. Kevin Barrs was appointed Gregor’s public defender and Gregor entered not guilty pleas to charges of second-degree assault, risk of injury to a minor, first-degree unlawful restraint, intentional cruelty to persons, first-degree strangulation and first-degree reckless endangerment.

He is now being held on $750,000 bond and is due back in court on June 21.

On the morning of Jan. 29, New London police said they were called to Jack’s Diner at 138 State St. for a report of a domestic violence. A 38-year-old woman showed up at the diner in distress and told police she had escaped her State Street apartment after being beaten and held against her will by Gregor.

Police said the Gregor and the victim co-parent three children and use fentanyl together. Gregor was upset when he found out she had gone behind his back to buy drugs and punched, kicked and choked her and used a piece of wood to hit her, police said in the their arrest warrant affidavit.

“Gregor made the victim use the bathroom in the outside alley which they accessed from their bedroom,” the arrest warrant states.

After begging Gregor to allow her to get juice from the bedroom in order to take her methadone, the victim told police she ran out the front door and to the nearby diner.

Police said they found Gregor hiding inside the apartment. Gregor was charged with third-degree assault, second-degree threatening, second-degree strangulation and disorderly conduct in connection with that alleged domestic incident.

It was during the investigation into the domestic assault that police spoke to the couple’s three children and learned of the child abuse allegations against the 10-year-old boy. The 10-year-old victim told police that in the previous months he had been beaten, tied up, struck with a wooden board and locked in a closet, police said. The abuse had started when the family lived in Norwich and continued when they moved to State Street in New London, the victim told police.

Police said the 10-year-old, malnourished and bruised, was taken to the hospital for treatment where it was discovered he had “multiple traumas throughout his body” and multiple healing rib fractures.

Gregor was free on a $100,000 bond in the initial case when police obtained a warrant for his arrest on the new charges involving the child. Gregor was arrested March 29 in East Lyme on those charges.

New London Superior Court Judge Hillary Strackbein indicated on Wednesday the court would appoint an attorney, or guardian ad litem, for the child.

g.smith@theday.com