A PENSIONER was in the dock last week for hurling racist abuse at a young girl and threatening to burst her football – after she kicked a ball it into his garden.

Neil Kennovin, 70, told the girl, 13, who can’t be named for legal reasons, to “go back to your own country” during a tirade of insults.

Kennovin, of Neilston, is said to have snapped because the girl regularly came to his door to ask to get her ball back – at a time when he is trying to care for his wife after she suffered two strokes.

The details emerged when Kennovin appeared in the dock at Paisley Sheriff Court to plead guilty over the offence.

He admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, which was likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm, contrary to Section 38(1) of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010.

Procurator Fiscal Depute Maureen McGovern told the court that the offence took place on Thursday, September 8 at Kennovin’s home in Lea Avenue.

The prosecutor explained: “The child witness was playing with a ball and has kicked the ball into the front garden of the accused.

“She rung the accused’s doorbell, he answered and immediately started shouting at her, ‘What’s your problem?’

“He threatened to burst the ball, then asked the child what school she went to.

“He finished off that conversation by telling the child, 'go back to your own country.'”

The girl told her foster parents what had happened and the police were contacted.

That night officers detained and interviewed Kennovin and, the court heard, “he appeared to concede he’d said something about the child going back to her own country”.

He made no reply when cautioned and charged by officers and was released on an undertaking to appear at court.

Defence solicitor David Nicholson said: “The young child repeatedly attended at his front door asking to retrieve her ball from his garden.

“He had previously told her there was a part of the fence she could simply lift up and get in.

“Her continual attendance at the door was causing distress and raising stress levels when he was trying to care for his sick wife.

“He is deeply ashamed of his actions and he is sorry.”

After hearing that Kennovin lives off a state pension, Sheriff Colin McKay deferred sentence on him for six months for him to be of good behaviour.