Angry mum threatened to drop bully over ledge

The furious 28-year-old saw red after her autistic son came home with a black eye and told her bullies had called him a “spastic”.

She went round to the play park where the gang of boys had allegedly attacked her son, grabbbed the 11-year-old ringleader by the front of his t-shirt and suspended him over the edge of a seven-foot drop.

She then threatened to let go saying: “How would you like it if I dropped you there?” then pulled his hair.

Livingston Sheriff Court heard that she eventually released the terrified boy who ran home to tell his parents.

They called the police and the mum, from Linlithgow, West Lothian, was arrested and charged with assault.

Stewart Houston, prosecuting, told the court: “Fortunately there was no injury.”

The mum pled guilty yesterday to assaulting the schoolboy at Eliburn Park, Livingston, on June 21.

Andy Aitken, defending, said the behaviour was out of character for his client who had suffered greatly as a result of her son being bullied.

He said her boy, who was aged nine and suffered from autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), had a mental age of six and was not in mainstream schooling.

He said: “He’s been tormented and bullied by other children. He’d come to his mother with a black eye, marks on his face and a cut on the side of his head and indicated that older children in the park had been making derogatory comments to him, amongst others ‘spastic’.

“She simply lost the rag, approached the children and behaved in the manner described.

“On this occasion she accepts she simply lost her temper.”

The mum – who can’t be named to protect her son’s identity – had sentence deferred for good behaviour.

Sheriff Peter Hammond told her she would be sentenced in three months time.