Councillor cleared of assaulting youths

A parish councillor who gave a teenager a "clip round the ear" has been cleared of assault.

Geoffrey Bowman, 60, told Huntingdon magistrates that he found two teenagers scratching words in wet cement outside the village church at Southoe in Cambridgeshire.

Bowman, who is chairman of the parish council, told the court he gave an "old-fashioned clip round the ear" to one of the youths.

His solicitor Peter Masters told magistrates that Bowman had been concerned about gangs hanging round the church, deterring visitors and scribbling graffiti on the walls.

Bowman denied two charges of assault and one of threatening violent behaviour.

He was cleared of the assault charges but convicted of using threatening behaviour.

He was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £125 costs.