A 37-year-old man assaulted a teenage boy knocking him over a table and grabbing him by the neck.

The boy was 14 years old at the time of the incident which resulted in Michael Bellfield appearing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

Bellfield, of Smith Avenue, Cowdenbeath, admitted that on June 18 last year at an address in Dunfermline, he assaulted the boy by pushing him, causing him to fall to the ground and then seized him by the neck to his injury.

Depute fiscal Catherine Stevenson said there was a confrontation on the doorstep as Bellfield tried to get into the house. He was nudged on the back as he went in.

Bellfield then pushed the boy over a coffee table causing to land on his back.

He put his hands around the boy’s neck and said, “If you ever touch me again I will f****** kill you.”

Defence solicitor Elaine Buist said the teenager was taller than her client.

However, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis was unimpressed saying: “He shouldn’t have lost it. You just can’t behave in this manner.”

He fined Bellfield £640.