A MAN has been cleared of hitting a three-year-old York boy in the stomach.

Peter John Foy, 53, who denied common assault, was acquitted by York Magistrates of attacking the child at his home in Albert Street, off Walmgate, York, last November.

The child’s mother alleged Foy had struck her son with a back-handed blow, and her sister made the same allegation, but Foy said he had merely tapped him on the shoulder. Magistrates said there were inconsistencies in evidence and they could not be sure what had happened and were therefore obliged to return a not guilty verdict.

Neil Holdsworth, prosecuting, said the incident happened after Foy had taken the woman and her son, and also her sister and her child, to Asda and then brought them back to his home, where he began cooking them a meal in the kitchen, with the others in the living room.

The child’s mother said he was jumping off a coffee table onto the floor and cushions. He then stood on something like a jar containing coins which was in the fireplace, and Foy said ‘No’ to him.

She said: “Then he went to the fireplace and backhanded my son in the stomach.”

She said she ‘wasn’t too sure’ where Foy had connected but he had not been in a position to touch her son on the shoulder.

The mother, who broke down in tears in the witness box at one stage and had to leave the courtroom temporarily, said her son had looked a bit shocked and was later very upset. “He was screaming,” she said. “He was hysterical.”

She said she called police after returning home and took her son to hospital to be checked over, but no injuries were found.

Her sister said she saw Foy strike the boy in the stomach.

The court heard that in an exchange of text messages after the incident, Foy had apologised.

Foy told the court he had been concerned about the child’s safety when he was standing on the jar, as it might have fallen over and cut his foot. “I went over to try to get him off and tapped him on the shoulder,” he said. He denied losing his temper with the child and said he had apologised because he was sorry the boy was crying.