A FATHER who threw a schoolboy to the ground and kicked him in the chest has been jailed for six months.

Paul Walton assaulted the 12-year-old because he believed he was responsible for firing toy pistol pellets at a girl, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

The victim, now aged 13, was left with a cut over his eyebrow and a grazed knee after the incident, in Paddock Wood.

The court heard that a group of children, aged 12 and 13, were playing in the grounds of Paddock Wood Primary School on December 4 last year.

Among them was a boy who had a low-powered, spring-operated BB pistol, which fired small plastic pellets. Walton’s son was there with an 11-year-old girl.

Prosecutor Anthony Prosser said some of the children, including the girl, started getting hit by pellets. The girl was upset and Walton’s son took her to his house.

When he heard what had happened, the furious father went out into the street, shouting: “Who’s got the gun?”

The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, replied: “I have”.

Walton, 50, demanded he hand it over and then grabbed him by the arms and shook him.

The boy’s friends watched as he was thrown to the ground and banged his head on the pavement.

“He assaulted a 12-year-old boy, grabbing him by the shoulders, throwing him to the ground and kicking him once in the chest,” said Mr Prosser, who described the father as “hostile”.

“He later accepted he had manhandled the boy because he wanted to get the pistol off him and said the boy accidentally cut himself when he fell,” he added.

Walton, of Old Kent Road, Paddock Wood, denied assault causing actual bodily harm but was convicted by the jury.

Assaulted

His lawyer submitted on Wednesday that he could be spared jail and receive a conditional discharge.

But Recorder Kathryn Peat said she disagreed that the offence did not cross the custody threshold.

It was clear, she said, that the assaulted boy had not done anything wrong.

Walton was also ordered to pay the victim £100 compensation.