A TEENAGER has been warned he could go to prison for spitting in a woman’s face in the first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

Aidan Coyle was aged just 17 when he turned up in an Old Kilpatrick close in April 2020 and spat on the woman’s face.

Last week he pleaded guilty to the assault. The Crown accepted he was not guilty of repeatedly shouting, swearing and uttering offensive remarks to the woman.

Dumbarton Sheriff Court was told that around 6pm on April 18, 2020, the 63-year-old woman was at her home in Old Dalnottar Road when she heard male voices from the common close.

She looked through her door and saw two teenage boys. She opened her front door and asked why they were there.

The court hearing was told the boys claimed they “could do what they wanted”.

The woman’s adult son joined her in the close, and she picked up a pack of cigarette paper from the floor and threw it into back garden, hoping it would encourage the two youths to leave.

Twice she pointed out to them that the Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time meant they should not be in the building.

That was when Coyle spat at her and it landed on the woman’s face.

She retreated into her home and immediately cleaned her face, fearing that she might have been infected by coronavirus.

Sheriff Maxwell Hendry condemned the teen, now aged 19, for his actions, saying: “I hope you recognise how disgusting a thing it is to spit saliva on a person’s face at any time.

And the sheriff pointed out that to behave as Coyle did in April 2020, when Covid was high on everyone’s minds and it was unclear how easily the disease could be transmitted, made the offence “an extremely serious matter”.

He warned Coyle: “The court will need to look at every option, including the possibility of a custodial sentence.”

Coyle, previously of Harris Road, Old Kilpatrick, and now of Ellinger Court, Dalmuir, had his sentence deferred until December 22 for background reports to be prepared.

In September, Coyle was sentenced for being in possession of a bladed item in a public place without reasonable excuse after he admitted having a pair of scissors with him in Freelands Crescent, Old Kilpatrick, in May 2020.

For that offence, Coyle was handed a community payback order with social work supervision for 12 months, and ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work.