A SON who battered his “violent, nasty drunk” of a father with a lump hammer after going to the defence of his mother has been jailed for six years.

Benjamin Wilson, 22, left Craig Wilson with a smashed, misshapen jaw, while paramedics who attended the scene of the attack also described how the victim had “multiple holes” in his head and face.

The older man suffered a bleed to his brain and fractures to his jaw, cheek, eye sockets, forehead and nose, and lost six teeth.

Paul Cleasby, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said Mr Wilson was put into an induced coma by doctors during treatment for his injuries and also required a ventilator to control his breathing.

Mr Cleasby said the 46-year-old was a “Jekyll and Hyde” character who was perfectly pleasant when sober, but became verbally abusive and aggressive when drunk.

The incident was sparked when the victim became drunk at a family party on May 31 and was told to go to bed by his wife.

Party goers subsequently heard crashing and banging from a bedroom as he argued with his wife. Mr Cleasby said Benjamin Wilson, who was subjected to verbal abuse from his father, then armed himself with a lump hammer, entered his father’s bedroom and struck him repeatedly to the head and face.

A witness who “bravely” tried to intervene said there had been seven or eight blows, while a pathologist later calculated there had been at least five with the heavy implement.

Wilson, of Waldridge Grove, Billingham, denied an initial charge of attempted murder. The Crown eventually accepted a plea of guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent – in what was described as a finely balanced decision.

Following the attack the defendant handed himself into police, telling them he thought he had killed his father.

Simon Bickler, mitigating, said Benjamin Wilson had grown up in an atmosphere of violence, fear and intimidation courtesy of his father.

He said: “The use of the weapon was very much of the moment. The defendant feared for his mother’s safety and went into the room effectively to defend her.

“It then became undoubtedly excessive.”

Mr Bickler said the defendant had a good work ethic and had recently become a father himself.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton said it had been a particularly grave crime, involving a “fearsome” weapon.

The judge said the starting point for the offence was nine years jail, which he cut to six because of the defendant’s guilty plea.

He also said he took into account his previous good character and the degree of provocation involved.