A MAN has escaped punishment – despite admitting assaulting a five-year-old Clydebank boy.

Ross Boyle, 30, hit the youngster after getting angry that the lad had been repeatedly getting out of bed when he should have been going to sleep.

Boyle, of Partick, smacked the boy’s bare bottom after arriving at the child’s home and being told he had been “acting up”.

Depute fiscal Emma Thomson told Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Tuesday: “The accused entered the house and was told the child had been playing up and would not stay in bed.

“[The child] had been throwing toys about and screaming every time he had been put back in bed and had lashed out at the accused.

“He told the boy’s mum ‘he hurt me’, to which she said ‘give him a sore bum’.

“[Boyle] pulled down the boy’s pyjamas and smacked him on the right buttock.”

The next day the child was dropped off at his dad’s house, where it was noticed that there was a “large red mark on the boy’s right buttock”.

Ms Thomson added: “The child said his mum had asked [the accused] to smack him because he was being a bad boy.”

The dad then contacted social workers who told him to take the lad to the Vale of Leven Hospital, although doctors found no medical attention was required.

He then contacted police.

After attending Clydebank police office, Boyle was charged with assaulting the boy.

His defence agent told the court: “It should not have happened.

“He fully accepts his complicity, and the knock-on effect for the family was catastrophic as their lives were scrutinised by police and social workers.

“The family are a tight family unit, and now the adults communicate properly regarding the child’s behaviour.”

Sheriff William Gallacher said: “The matter has been investigated comprehensively.

“I am going to defer sentence for you to be of good behaviour for four months.

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“There has to be no repetition of criminality in that time.

“I am not going to refer the case to the children’s reporter, although I could have done.”

Sentence was deferred until June 23 for Boyle to be of good behaviour, when he will appear at court again.