FORMER snooker champion Alex Higgins yesterday admitted assaulting a 14 year old boy after he interrupted a family discussion. The player, who was conditionally discharged by Stockport Magistrates, later condemned the case as "a farce which should not have been brought to court".

The court hard that Higgins, 46, kicked the teenager, a friend of his son, Jordan, and swore at him after he interrupted a conversation between Higgins and his ex-wife, Lynn in her house in Greater Manchester.

Robin Falvey, defending, told the court that Higgins said that the boy was "truculent and impertinent". "Having told him to get out he kicked out with his leg as anybody would."

Falvey said that Higgins was under pressure because of an unspecified illness, and because his ability to earn from the game of snooker was now "virtually negligible".