A MARRIED dad has told how a former friend's attack on him has changed his life forever after suffering a fractured skull and brain haemorrhage.

The engineer was felled with a single blow from Richard Hutchinson following a long-running and bitter dispute about a £300 loan between the men.

Hutchinson was yesterday jailed for two years at Teesside Crown Court after earlier pleading guilty to a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The 40-year-old, of Grenville Road, Thornaby, knocked out his former friend after charging at him in a betting shop last September.

The victim spent 16 days in a hospital's intensive care unit, and had to return to a neurological rehabilitation ward for 11 days three months later.

He still suffers from memory loss and constant headaches and tiredness, and told in an impact statement read to the court: "My life has changed drastically."

The court heard how the father-of-two has been unable to return to work, and depends on his wife to care for him and the family's finances.

"I don't actively get involved with my children as much as I used to," the statement said. "It upsets me I'm not the husband and father I used to be."

Hutchinson told police he was "gutted" that his victim had suffered such horrific injuries, and his barrister said he had expressed remorse.

Duncan McReddie, mitigating, said the scaffolder and his family had been threatened, and although the attack was premeditated, he had been provoked.

Hutchinson said in an interview after his arrest: "I didn't mean to cause that much damage to him. I thought it would have knocked him sideways and I was expecting to get a bat back. When I saw him go down, it shook me how easy he went down."

The ill-feeling between the families came after Hutchinson borrowed the money and had not paid all of it back, prosecutor Emma Atkinson told the court.