A DAD who thought a teenage boy was trying to have sex with his 14-year-old daughter punched him in the face.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went out searching for his daughter when she was one-and-a-half hours late coming home, Worcester Magistrates Court heard.

The 35-year-old father found his daughter in a playground with her 16-year-old friend, prosecutor Kiernan Cunningham told the court.

Mr Cunningham said the boy was sitting at the top of a slide when the father found them on Friday, April 25.

The prosecutor said the father, from Tenbury, told his daughter to go home, and punched the boy in the face.

Mr Cunningham said the father shouted "All you lads think about is trying to get your end away."

Fracture

Mr Cunningham, said the victim, who was left in shock, with a bleeding nose and mouth, suffered a fracture to the nose.

"This is an action which is very much out of character for him," said Edward Gaynor-Smith, defending the father.

"He was very much mistaken as to what was going on."

Mr Gaynor-Smith said when the father was told by his daughter that nothing had gone on between her and the 16-year-old boy, he handed himself in to Tenbury police.

The father admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm in court yesterday.

He was released on unconditional bail, and the case was adjourned until Friday, June 20, for a pre-sentence report.