A FORMER soldier battered a four-and-a-half month old boy while out with his sex offender friend then lied to the police about who he was with.

David Parker, 33, was watching the baby when he met up with Paul Higgins and his partner Kenneth Grant - who is the subject of a sexual prevention order to stop him coming into contact with children.

While in the changing room at KFC, on Glasgow’s Argyle Street, Parker assaulted the child who was then seen “crying and visibly distressed.”

The police were later contacted when the baby's mum saw injuries on his face and he was later found to have further bruises on his thighs and head.

When questioned by police officers about what he had done that day, Parker claimed he was only with one friend who he named as being called Paul.

But, CCTV from KFC showed Grant with Parker - who was seen hiding the baby’s face.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, Parker, from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire pled guilty to assaulting the four-and-a-half-month old baby by “inflicting blunt force trauma on his head and body by means unknown” to his injury on June 10, last year.

He also admitted providing false information with intent to pervert the course of justice.

Sheriff Johanna Johnston QC deferred sentence until next month and continued Parker’s bail.