A MAN convicted of assaulting two neighbours claimed he was the victim of a “George Floyd moment”.

James McMahon referenced the police killing of the 46-year-old in May that sparked Black Lives Matter protests around the globe as he appeared for sentencing.

McMahon, 58, was previously found guilty at trial of assaulting a man and woman at Carleith Terrance, Duntocher, on September 15, last year.

He had been charged with striking a man on the body with a saw and struggling violently with him to his injury, and of repeatedly kicking the woman on the body.

Representing himself at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on November 3, McMahon claimed the trial had been a “mistrial”.

He repeatedly tried to argue to Sheriff William Gallacher that he was appealing the sheriff’s decision.

The sheriff said that was a matter for the Court of Appeal.

McMahon protested: “I was the body on the ground. The two people assaulted were the two people doing the assaulting.”

He said a video had shown what happened.

“That, I think, was a George Floyd moment,” he said. “The two causing criminal assault to myself decided to cover up by phoning the police and saying I was the assailant.

“The injuries were very extensive.”

McMahon said he was the only one taken to hospital on the day for injuries.

The sheriff said: “I heard the trial and what was said. You simply don’t accept what was said. I cannot deal with an appeal against my own decision.”

He continued: “I’m not in the process of rerunning the trial. I’m not in the process of hearing an appeal. I’m interested in what I should do in relation to the charges found proved.”

McMahon declared: “The trial was a mistrial. The guilty verdict is essentially unsafe and unsound.

“The whole thing is a tragedy. It’s not even a farce any more.

“It’s very strange that a 58-year-old has no difficulty with the law until the age of 48. A certain individual has made my life hell for 10 years.

“Both individuals were going to get me eventually because they were making an attempt to frame me. The only person assaulted was myself.”

But McMahon added he was willing to comply with any orders by the court. He said he was sole carer for his father and had been for his mother until she passed away this year.

Sheriff Gallacher sentenced McMahon to a community payback order with 12 months of supervision by social workers.