Schoolboy ‘left battered and bleeding’ after baseball bat attack in flat

May 28 2009

A TEENAGE boy told a court this week that a Hamilton man attacked him with a baseball bat while he was helping a friend decorate her flat.

The boy, aged between 13 and 15, said James Johnson appeared at the door of a town flat on February 4 this year and struck him on the head with the bat before hitting him on the arm with it.

The schoolboy was giving evidence on Tuesday, the first day of a trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court.

Johnson (41) denied carrying out assaults on the boy, and on a Leona McLaughlin and a Jane Flannigan.

However, he pleaded guilty to maliciously damaging a hi-fi and window at the flat by striking them with the baseball bat.

Questioned by fiscal-depute Barry Dunne, the boy explained that he had been scraping wallpaper at the flat in the company of others that day.

He said Johnson arrived and Leona McLaughlin gave him money to buy chips, adding: “By the time he came back up he was wasted.”

When Johnson returned half-an-hour later the witness said he let him inside and the accused left the chips before going back out.

However, he said, Johnson returned 15 minutes later and when the boy opened the door the accused hit him on the forehead with the baseball bat.

Johnson, who the witness described as “a wee bit drunk,” then hit him on the arm.

The boy said Johnson did not say anything to him during the attack.

He said: “Leona came out and he hit me again on the (right) arm. He just kept hitting me.”

When Leona McLaughlin “ran out”, said the boy, Johnson hit her with the bat on the head, arms and back.

The witness also told the court he was bleeding following the attack and was later treated in hospital where he received seven stitches.

He also explained that in an identification parade a few nights after the assault he identified Johnson as the man responsible.

Mr Dunne asked him about the effect the attack had had on him and he replied: “I’m just a wee bit wary when going round corners in case somebody out of the blue hits me with a bat. For the first few nights I couldn’t sleep well either.”

The trial before Sheriff John Miller was continuing yesterday.