A THUG battered a teenage boy and smashed up his Xbox in a drunken rage before attacking the boy's mum when she tried to bring the violence to an end.

James Moore, 52, flipped after having a row with the schoolboy at Moore's home in Irvine Drive, Linwood, last month.

The details emerged this week when Moore appeared in the dock at Paisley Sheriff Court for a pre-trial hearing.

He pleaded guilty to three of the four charges he faced – assaulting the 14-year-old to his injury, assaulting the boy's mum and damaging property by smashing up the Xbox.

A charge that he had also behaved in a threatening or abusive way was dropped by prosecutors.

Procurator fiscal depute Pamela Flynn told the court: "The accused lost his temper and began smashing up the Xbox console. [The boy] attempted to stop the accused from damaging the Xbox but the accused continued to punch the console.

"He thereafter seized hold of his t-shirt at the neck and this caused scratches to [the boy's] face and neck. [The boy's] mother attended and attempted to intervene and attempted to get the accused off [her son] and pulled the accused's t-shirt.

"However, the accused turned round and pushed her, thereafter grabbing her by the hair and dragged her along the hall by the hair to the front door in an attempt to remove her from the property.

"[The boy] attempted to intervene to get the accused away from his mother and she escaped the accused and made her way into the kitchen. The accused grabbed [the boy] and pushed him out the back door."

After hearing that the boy did not need medical treatment, Sheriff Tom McCartney called for background reports to be prepared and deferred sentence until next month for that to be done.

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