A MAN accused of racially abusing a 14-year-old boy in a street dispute has been cleared by a jury.

Jason McGarry had denied he had been at the scene and had not thrown a brick through the boy's window.

Friends and neighbours testified that McGarry had not been seen in the street that night and that he was not racist.

One neighbour from the same street told the jury at Bolton Crown Court that the youth, who was now aged 16, was known locally as a bit of nuisance.

He had thrown buds from a tree at her windows and she had to tell him and other youths to keep the noise down on several occasions.

When she spoke to him, the youth had accused her of picking on him because he was black.

McGarry was alleged to have racially threatened the teenager and then hurled a brick through the lounge window of his home during an incident last October.

The dispute flared after McGarry's partner accused the teenager of ordering pizzas and sending them to her house.

But the teenager claimed McGarry's daughter, Charlene, had rung his phone several times and put the phone down without speaking.

McGarry, aged 33, of Dunkirk Road, Whitefield, was cleared of four charges after a trial at Bolton Crown Court.

He denied a racially aggravated offence and racially motivated criminal damage, and two other alternative charges.