A burly school security guard who kicked a 13-year-old student in the face after knocking him to the ground has been given a six month suspended jail term.

Father-of-three Anthony Lodge, of South Road, Paget, denied unlawful assault causing bodily harm to the boy at Whitney Institute Middle School on May 16 last year.

But Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo found the 43-year-old guilty after a trial yesterday, telling him he could have faced a two-year stretch in prison, rather than the $1,500 fine and six month sentence, suspended for 18 months, he received.

He said Lodge, who is now a bus driver, attacked the boy after a verbal spat due to a loss of control or anger and showed poor judgement in doing so. "I do believe that you are sorry for it and that you recognise it was over the top," he added. "You wouldn't want anybody kicking your children in the face."

Lodge, who had a history of violent crime prior to his last offence in 1991, gave evidence at the trial, claiming that he bumped into the youth after being tripped up by another student.

"I bumped into [the child's] chest," he said. "That's when he fell to the ground. As he fell to the ground I was trying to catch my balance. I was looking round. Some children were coming towards me."

He said he caught a glimpse of the boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, getting up and thought he was going to retaliate. "That's when I kicked him in the face," he said. "At that time I felt threatened."

Crown counsel Maria Sofianos, during cross-examination, suggested the boy was simply getting up because he was lying on the ground.

"You were responsible for the safety of the children in the school," she said. "But you didn't protect the children on that day, did you?"

Ms Sofianos, who described Lodge as "big", said: "While this 13-year-old boy was on the ground you kicked him in the face."

She added: "I suggest at that time you did nothing else because you caught yourself."

Lodge, a single father of 16-year-old twins and an 18-year-old son, replied: "Yes, I caught myself and I felt sorry for what I had done. I couldn't believe I had done that."

Earlier, he said the boy had been "running off at the mouth" and had told him: "You are nothing but a security guard. You can't tell me what the f to do."

A transcript was read out of the Police interview after Lodge's arrest, during which he told officers: "Those children at Whitney are very rude and disrespectful."

He added: "Not all of the children are like this, just some of them."

The boy, now 14 and at a different school, told the trial that he and Lodge — whom the court heard was employed by G.E.T. Security — were "cool" before the incident. He said on the day in question the defendant ordered him out of the school's dance studio during lunchtime and he told him: "Whatever."

The boy, described by the magistrate as a credible witness, said Lodge then ran down a ramp towards him.

"He tackled me on the ground. He ran down and then he used his whole body weight to push me down."

He said friends held the security guard back but he broke free and kicked him in the face.

"I was still on the ground. I had a headache, my nose was bleeding, I felt dizzy."

He was treated at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for a swollen face and black eye.

Defence lawyer Larry Scott said the offence should not be an imprisonable one, suggesting that such a sentence would encourage bad behaviour in schools.

But Mr. Tokunbo rejected his argument and said: "Violence in this community is a problem. This is a case of an adult. Do you deal with a child by kicking him in the face?"

Whitney principal Freddie Evans could not be contacted for comment yesterday.