A father who slapped his child during a tantrum has been told by a sheriff that he ended up in court only because he left a visible mark on the boy's thigh.

The man had disciplined his 11-year-old son after he acted like "a stroppy teenager" and made cheeky comments to his mother before trashing his room.

But the 45-year-old, who has no criminal record, was arrested as he picked the boy up at school after a teacher noticed the boy had a bruise on his thigh during a PE lesson.

Sheriff Alastair Brown told the father there were "a legitimate range of views" on how to deal with children who were throwing temper tantrums.

He told the draughtsman: "I accept that the boy was, in effect, throwing a tantrum and that is a difficult situation to deal with – but you are the grown-up. There's a range of views about how one disciplines children who are throwing tantrums, and that range of views is legitimate.

"What is quite clear however, is that, even if smacking a child is an appropriate method of discipline, doing it so hard as to bruise the child is well over the score.

"Even if what you were trying to do was to exercise proper parental discipline, you went far too far and what you did was commit an assault."

The father, who cannot be named, admitted assaulting his 11-year-old son by pushing him to the ground and slapping his leg at their Crieff home on February 16 this year.

Fiscal depute John Malpass told Perth Sheriff Court: "They were due to attend a family meal and the child fell out with his mother regarding the clothes he wished to wear.

"He made rude comments to his mother, which were overheard by the accused. The accused approached the child, threw him to the ground, then smacked him on the thigh.

"He was told he was grounded the rest of the day and that was to be the end of the matter. At school, the child informed his teacher he couldn't take part in physical activity because he had injured his leg.

"The teacher observed the child was upset, but didn't speak to him in front of other members of the class. He took the child aside and spoke to him in private.

"The child disclosed he had been struck by his father. There was a substantial bruise on his thigh. The head teacher contacted the duty social work team, who contacted police."

The father was arrested when he went to collect his son.

Solicitor Rosemary Scott, defending, said: "The child had been throwing himself around the room beforehand and had hit the furniture. The child indicated the bruising may have been caused when he fell on the furniture."

She said he client did not dispute that he struck his son and the boy fell, adding: "He accepts he slapped him too hard. The child had been causing problems to the extent that his behaviour caused his parents' concern. It's not a case where he and his wife had taken matters into their own hands. He was almost like a stroppy teenager. His wife indicated the boy was really out of control.

"After being rude and cheeky he trashed his room. The young boy has promised not to behave this way again because he does not want to upset his father."

The father, who has had to live away from the family home since his arrest under bail conditions, was ordered to carry out 60 hours of unpaid work.