A WITNESS called police after he saw a 30-year-old man strike a three-year-old boy, knocking him screaming to the ground, Wirral magistrates were told.

The accused from Moreton was later detained lying in grass at the side of the road with the boy.

He pleaded guilty to being drunk in charge of the boy and also assaulting him by beating.

Shenade Fearon, defending, said the defendant had an alcohol problem and needed the support of the probation service.

He had now lost contact with his son and the mother. He accepted his actions on the day went above and beyond normality and he had lost his self-respect.

Magistrates told the man, who cannot be identified because it would identify the complainant, that there were aggravating features to the case.

There was a vulnerable victim and alcohol was involved.

They jailed the accused for 60 days.