A HOSPITAL patient tried to choke his mother when she arrived to pick him up following his discharge.

Maureen Lawson feared she was going to die when son Stuart grabbed her from behind the driver's seat in a tight headlock.

Lawson, 30, pulled her back against the head-rest and warned that he would kill her, Teesside Crown Court was told.

He initially claimed it was his mother's fault, but later admitted a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Judge Peter Bowers imposed a 12-month suspended prison sentence and a five-year restraining order against Lawson.

The order bans him from going to his mother's home in Darlington, but allows him to contact her by telephone.

Tom Mitchell, mitigating, said: "He has realised that at the age of 30 he should not be in trouble or in jail.

"It is alcohol which has got him into trouble, and what he would want now is help. Prison is really doing nothing for him."

The court heard how Lawson has been behind bars on remand since his arrest for the assault on September 2 last year.

Prosecutor Christine Egerton said he had just been released from the town's West Park Hospital when the incident happened.

Lawson had been diagnosed with a personality disorder and had been involved in a fight with another patient, Miss Egerton said.

He had blood pouring down his face and was with another man – also injured - when his mother called to pick him up.

Miss Egerton said she would not allow the other man into the car, and would not have gone to pick up her son if she knew he had been drinking, because he becomes aggressive.

"He lunged forward from the rear passenger seat and put his right arm around her neck, pulling her head tight against the head-rest, choking her," said Miss Egerton.

"It was stopping her from breathing. His grip loosened and he began punching her really hard in the face.

"She cried out for help, sounding the car horn repeatedly, but this seemed to anger the defendant further.

"She was left traumatised, bruised and cut."