A DUMBARTON woman who assaulted a 15-year-old girl as she got off a train in Balloch has been spared a prison sentence.

Ashley McCurley, 29, appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court for sentencing on Friday, February 8, after pleading guilty to punching the teenager in the face.

The court heard that around 5pm on June 28, McCurley, of Ardoch Crescent, was on a train with her partner and young son when the victim and her friends, who were all aged between 15 and 17, boarded the train at Dalmuir to travel to Balloch.

Another person on the train asked the group of young girls to turn the music down, before McCurley also asked if the music could be turned down so that her son could sleep.

Fiscal depute Martina McGuigan said the music was turned down, but not low enough.

CCTV footage showed the group of girls sitting over two aisles and McCurley exchanging words with them before the train reached Balloch.

Ms McGuigan said: “It was at that point, just as they were getting off the train, that the accused approached the witness. There was one punch to her face.

“The witness did not report the matter until later on that day. In her statement, she says she was in shock at being hit by the accused.”

The victim suffered bruising to her face as a result of the attack.

McCurley’s lawyer, Scott Adair, explained that when his client left the train, she was conscious of some sort of liquid hitting her, though she did not know where it had come from.

“She over-reacted to the situation,” Mr Adair said.

“The circumstances, to a certain extent, explain her behaviour, though they do not excuse it in any way.”

At the time of the incident McCurley was already on bail that was granted on November 7, 2017.

She was also the subject of a separate community payback order, imposed on an unrelated matter.

Mr Adair added: “The incident doesn’t do her any credit, but the compliance with the existing order perhaps shows she is taking a different attitude to matters generally.”

Sheriff William Gallacher ordered McCurley to carry out 135 hours of unpaid work, adding: “This is an alternative to custody, and if you don’t comply, that’s what will happen.”