A FORMER soldier who subjected his mother to a violent assault that left her with a punctured lung and fractured ribs has been jailed for six years.

Paul Fearon, 41, “flipped” after his mother asked him to help his stepfather with some gardening at their home in Throstle Avenue, Wigton, Carlisle Crown Court heard. She escaped when he punched a door so hard that his hand became stuck.

Earlier in the attack, carried out in his bedroom, he had charged towards his mother, thrown her to the ground, gripped her throat and repeatedly punched her.

He told her: “I could kill you if I wanted to.”

The defendant, who has no fixed address, admitted intentionally causing his mother grievous bodily harm on April 23 this year. The offending came four days after Fearon was given a suspended jail term for a drugs supply offence.

At Carlisle Crown Court, defence barrister Ben Stanley told Judge Guy Mathieson that Fearon had apologised for his behaviour.

On the day of the attack, Fearon had consumed a small bottle of vodka and got drunk before going home and carrying out the attack, said the barrister.

After his name appeared in the News & Star following his drugs conviction, his mother had expressed concern about what her partner may think of Fearon in the light of his drugs offending.

Later, as she asked him to help her partner in the garden, he flipped. “While the assault was occurring,” said Mr Stanley, “he realised he had gone too far and took out the remainder of his anger on the door.”

Judge Guy Mathieson noted that Fearon had served “with distinction” during his Army career but this had led to a variety of issues with which he had struggled for many years – including the defendant’s involvement in drugs.

Imposing an indefinite restraining order, banning any contact with his mother, the judge told Fearon: “You leave her to heal.”

Two years of the sentence was an activation of the earlier two year suspended term for the drugs offence.

For a fuller report of this case, see newsandstar.co.uk tomorrow.