Woman charged with 'assaulting young boys with Hoover'
An Alloa woman is to stand trial accused of assaulting two young boys with part of a vacuum cleaner.
Ann Marie Fowler is also accused of hitting two boys with shoes and throwing a boy aged between four and five across a room.
The 28-year-old denies the three assaults at addresses in Alloa and Clackmannan between August 2013 and February 2014.
She is due to stand trial at Alloa Sheriff Court on 19 May.
The charges allege Ms Fowler assaulted the eldest of the boys, aged between 10 and 11, by repeatedly striking him with a mop, shoes, and an item described on court papers as "a Hoover pole", and repeatedly punching him on the head to his injury.
She is also accused of assaulting another boy, aged between eight and nine, by repeatedly striking him with the Hoover pole and shoes, seizing him by the neck and holding him against a wall.
Between the same dates she is alleged to have assaulted the youngest boy by repeatedly striking him on the body, seizing him by the neck and body and throwing him across a room.
Sheriff David Mackie continued the case for trial.