Boy cleared of attacking woman in home

The teenager then went into the witness box and claimed he had no idea how Theresa Campbell came about her injuries which included two black eyes.

Imran Bashir, prosecuting, said Ms Campbell (46) had “bruises all over her body” after the attack in Mulberry Road, Viewpark, on March 18 this year.

Christopher Cairns (20), a prisoner, and the boy denied punching and kicking Ms Campbell, dragging her down stairs, striking her repeatedly with a table leg and robbing her of house keys and a phone battery.

They went on trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court, but on the second day of evidence Mr Bashir dropped the charge against the 16-year-old who was formally found not guilty.

Ms Campbell said she had known Cairns all his life and was “100 per cent certain” he was one of two people who attacked her. She told the court she had invited the pair into her home when they asked her for a cigarette, but violence flared, a coffee table was smashed and a table leg used to beat her.

Neighbours shocked by the attack set up an online appeal and money raised was used to send Ms Campbell on holiday to see her daughter in Australia.

Ms Campbell rejected a defence claim that she had made up the assault allegation in order to get money.

Jim O’Dowd, representing Cairns, accused her of raking in “thousands of pounds” from the appeal, but she said she had received no money, only airline tickets.

Mr O’Dowd said neither fingerprints nor DNA belonging to Cairns had been found on the table leg and claimed Ms Campbell had got her injuries in an unrelated fight.

Cairns also denies breaking into the same house and stealing cash more than a year earlier.

Giving evidence, the 16-year-old boy admitted being in Ms Campbell’s house on the night of the attack.

Mr Bashir asked how it was that his blood had been found on the mantelpiece. He replied: “Theresa got cheeky about the break-in at her house. She and Chrissie started pushing each other. I tried to split them up and Theresa pushed me against the mantelpiece, and that’s how I cut my finger.”

Mr Bashir asked him to look at pictures of Ms Campbell’s injuries. The boy did and said: “Look at her face. Who would do that? It’s terrible.”

The boy claimed Ms Campbell was fine when he and Cairns left her house, but Mr Bashir accused him of lying to protect Cairns.

The trial continues.