Northants grandfather who slapped and throttled his grandson after row about bedtime jailed

The Daventry man - who this newspaper has chosen not to name to avoid identifying the boy - was found guilty by a jury of a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after a trial last month.

A sentencing hearing at Northampton Crown Court on Thursday heard the man, in his forties, had been looking after his grandson in August last year.

Michael Coley, prosecuting, said that, at 6pm, the man asked the young boy to go to bed and the child said he did not normally go to bed until 8pm.

Mr Coley said: “An argument started with the child. The defendant got angry and took hold of the child round the neck so he had trouble breathing.

“He slapped him hard twice to the cheek and threw him across the bed onto the floor.”

The court heard the boy suffered bruising to his face and the matter was reported to the police once he returned home to his mother.

His Honour Judge Timothy Smith said the grandfather had sought to blame “everyone but himself” for the boy’s injuries.

He described him as a “controlling man” who had acted like a “bully”.

Judge Smith sentenced the man to eight months in custody. He is likely to serve half his sentence in jail before being released on licence.