A PARENT called a deputy headteacher a paedophile and attacked him at his child's school, York magistrates heard.

The assault left the teacher doubled up in pain, said Martin Butterworth, prosecuting.

The father's 14-year-old son had earlier injured the teacher and had been throwing things around at school..

Elisha Canning, defending, the son had rang his father about the deputy headteacher and said he was locked in a room.

He had sounded so distressed the parent had gone straight to the school.

She denied that the teacher had been called a paedophile.

The 38-year-old father from north York pleaded guilty to assaulting the deputy headteacher.

He is not being named to protect the son.

Magistrates adjourned his case for a pre-sentence report and released him on bail.

Mr Butterworth said staff at the school had had to restrain the son on June 30 because he was throwing things around and threatening people.

Shortly afterwards, the deputy head saw the father walking across the school car park.

In the reception area, the father asked "Are you the one that hurt my son?"

The teacher told police he had told the father the son had injured him.

He asked the father to talk with him and the school's head about the son in the head's office.

The deputy head told police the father had called him a paedophile.

"He then punched me with a clenched fist and landed the blow to my right lower ribs with force," the deputy head's statement said.

The teacher had immediately doubled up in pain and left the reception area.

"I was in complete shock," he said in his statement.

He was not physically injured.

The father pleaded guilty on the basis he had pushed and not punched the teacher, but accepted that he had winded him, said Mr Butterworth.

The prosecution did not accept the basis but the magistrates decided the difference between prosecution and defence would not affect the sentence.

Ms Canning said the father had told her he had used the words "child abuse" and not "paedophile".

He had two children at the school.

"They had started to come home bruised," claimed the defence solicitor.

"This was down to the techniques used for restraining them."

This had distressed the father, she said.

He was very remorseful for his actions on June 30 and accepted he should have dealt with matters differently.

No children had witnessed the incident.

He had been under stress at the time as his wife was ill and he had been looking after their children alone.