A 30-year-old Boston man who served as John McCain's press secretary during the New Hampshire primary was arrested early yesterday on a domestic violence charge.

Flynn is accused of punching his girlfriend and breaking one of her ribs in a confrontation two days after the New Hampshire primary in January.

Officers who talked to the 30-year-old woman said she appeared shaken and nervous and told them that she "was afraid of her boyfriend and that he had repeatedly beaten her during their five-year relationship," according to a police report.

She also told them that on Jan. 10, two days after the New Hampshire primary, Flynn punched her in the shoulder and ribs, breaking one of them.

Flynn had been a spokesman for the McCain campaign since August.

In 2003, he was arrested on charges of domestic violence against the same woman and fired from his job working for Mitt Romney, then governor of Massachusetts, because of that, according to court records.