Six-month ordeal of schoolboy accused of ‘assault by snowball’

A MOTHER has demanded an apology from the Crown Prosecution Service after her 15-yearold son was put on trial for throwing a snowball in the face of a teenage girl.

The teenager was charged with assault by beating and has been dragged to court five times since the February incident. His ordeal ended on Thursday when magistrates threw the case out.

Yesterday the boy’s mother said she was furious at prosecutors for bringing the case and denied her son had even thrown the snowball.

The woman, who cannot be identified to protect the anonymity of her son, said: ‘The past six months have been a nightmare for my son.

‘We were so relieved when the magistrates said there was no case to answer but we are angry it ever came to this. God only knows how much this prosecution has cost the taxpayer.

‘My son has been treated like a criminal and for what? A snowball that may or may not have been thrown, may or may not have hit a person and in any case was not thrown by him.’

The teenager was arrested at his home in a village near Leicester the morning after a girl complained he had thrown a snowball at her at a local recreation area.

A CPS spokesman said there had been ‘clear evidence the complainant had been deliberately targeted and that this was more than just a youthful snowball fight’.