By Rory Cassidy

Three young men are due to go on trial over claims they carried out a life-threatening attack on a man in which they used slates as weapons.

Declan Davidson and two teenagers – who are aged 16 and 17 and can’t be named for legal reasons – are said to have attacked Matthew Boyd in Barrhead on May 11 last year.

Davidson, 21, alone faces a second charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, which was likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm, by shouting, swearing and making derogatory remarks.

All three are said to have assaulted Mr Boyd by repeatedly punching him on the head, pushing him and causing him to fall to the ground, raining punches and kicks on his head and body, repeatedly hitting him with slates and other unspecified “implements,” leaving him badly hurt and scarred for life.

The alleged attack is also said to have left Mr Boyd with “permanent impairment” and was “to the danger of his life.”

Davidson, of Divernia Way, Barrhead, and the two teenagers, who both live in the town, denied their guilt at a pre-trial hearing at Paisley Sheriff Court.

A trial was scheduled for the week beginning November 13.