A village postman and borough councillor has been cleared of assaulting a 12-year-old boy during a game of dodgeball.

Richard Webb, a Maidstone Borough Councillor for Coxheath, had been volunteering at the village hall in November when an innocent evening of games turned sour.

The 43-year-old said he was “p***ed off” when one of the boys had broken the rules and tried to take the ball off him.

Mr Webb, of Clock House Rise, restrained the boy by pushing him against a wall and placing his arm behind his back. He denied using excessive force and had previously pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault by beating.

During a trial at Maidstone Magistrates’ Court the bench heard Mr Webb had given up his time to help run the club on Wednesday evenings.

Andrew Jones, prosecuting the case, said: “Towards the end of the evening a ball game was being played. Mr Webb had hold of the ball and the boy approached Mr Webb and tried to take the ball off him.

“The Crown says at that point Mr Webb lost his temper with the boy and he pushed him against the wall and twisted his arm up his back.

“Mr Webb said to him ‘I’m sick of you no one wants you here’.

“Mr Webb described the incident in similar terms but said as the boy tried to take the ball off him, in the process the backside of the boy’s hand had caught Mr Webb in the face.”

Magistrates dismissed suggestions that this was a retaliation and an assault and told Mr Webb he had been acquitted of the charge.

Witnesses in the case described the 12-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as a “pain in the a***” and the court was told he had hit a teammate during the build up to the incident that landed Mr Webb in trouble.

Mr Webb told the bench he had been struck in the face while the boy tried to take the ball from him during the game of dodgeball.

He said: “Because I was smarting from the blow and he had fought someone earlier I didn’t want to get caught again.

“I restrained him to stop him from attacking again.

“We wanted to have the community group running and play a game of dodgeball. The boy had been disruptive.”

Magistrates told Mr Webb he was free to leave the court after they deemed his actions of November 8 “proportionate and reasonable”.