A TEEN who kicked in a glass door panel to punch a 14-year-old boy in his own home left DNA behind which police used to identify him.

Liam Mooney took revenge on the lad after spotting his younger cousin being involved in a brief fight with him and another youth.

Dumbarton Sheriff Court heard last week that nobody was injured in the initial scrap which happened at around 1pm on August 11, 2017 when Mooney was aged 19.

Following the altercation with the 13-year-old cousin, the victim, who cannot be named because of his age, heard somebody shouting at him and saw Mooney, who he didn’t know, running towards him.

The boy ran a mile home with Mooney initially following, but eventually losing him.

Mooney returned to the cousin and other boys and asked for the identity of the boy and where he lived. They refused to tell Mooney.

He then travelled around looking for the boy and, in a Dumbarton street, saw the boy looking out of an upstairs window.

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Mooney, of Park Crescent, started knocking on the teenager’s door and ringing the bell.

Through the door, he asked the boy if his parents were home and when he was told no, he shouted for the teen to open the door.

The boy didn’t have a key to lock the door and held the door shut. But Mooney then started to kick the glass panel until it smashed and then crawled through.

Depute fiscal Sarah Healing told the court: “He approached the complainer, who was lying on his back at the bottom of the stairs. He punched the complainer a number of times to the face.”

Mooney then crawled back through the panel - rather than opening the unlocked door - and left the area.

He left behind blood on the broken glass and was later matched by DNA.

The teenaged victim called police but couldn’t name his attacker at that time. The next day, he found Mooney on Facebook and his mother informed officers.

Police interviewed Mooney on November 22, 2017, but he then left the country in April and was in Ibiza working until a warrant was issued for him in July 2018.

Mooney later pleaded guilty to assaulting the boy by repeatedly punching him to the head to his injury.

Defence solicitor Jonathan Paul said his now 21-year-old client had “difficulties with substance abuse” but that those issues were “very much behind him”.

He said: “He is a changed person. He is quite clear to me he saw weapons. He didn’t appreciate the age of the complainer until he was face to face with him.

“What he saw was his younger cousin being attacked by two older males.

“He accepts he was at the complainer’s house and forced entry and once inside assaulted him.”

Sheriff Frances McCartney ordered Mooney to do 240 hours of unpaid work within 18 months.

She added: “If you don’t comply with that order, you will be going to jail.”

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