A man has admitted smashing up the car of actress Jaime King while her then four-year-old son was inside.

Paul Francis Floyd, 48, jumped on to the bonnet of the parked Mercedes-Benz in Beverly Hills in April before smashing the windows and throwing a bottle at a woman minding the child, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney.

King’s son James, now five, was left covered in glass by the incident.

Jaime King
A man has admitted attacking a car containing the son of actress Jaime King (Yui Mok/PA)

Pearl Harbour star King, 39, was not in the car at the time and later described the attack as “terrifying”.

Floyd pleaded no contest to one felony count of vandalism and one misdemeanour count each of cruelty to child by endangering health and battery, prosecutors said on Friday.

Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Yvette Verastegui sentenced him to three years of formal probation and 189 days in jail for time served.

The judge also ordered Floyd to attend at least one year in a residential mental illness and drug rehabilitation programme for veterans and to pay compensation to the victims.

Following the incident on April 4, King, also known for starring in films including Sin City and My Bloody Valentine 3D, criticised photographers who she said took pictures rather than stepping in to help.

Writing on Instagram, she said: “The attack was incredibly violent and my four-year-old son was obviously the target of the individual’s brutal attack, which is terrifying.”

King is married to the filmmaker Kyle Newman and is also mother to three-year-old Leo Thames, whose godmother is the popstar Taylor Swift.