Son who stamped on mum's head because he 'didn't like her' jailed for six years

Daniel Suckling was jailed for the vicious attack on his mother which left her with a broken jaw.

A troubled son walked into a hospital and announced he thought he had killed his mother after a family funeral.mDaniel Suckling viciously attacked his mum as she slept after a wake, stamping on her head and twisting an arm which had undergone surgery. The mum was sleeping in bed when her drunk 21-year-old son burst into the room at his grandparents’ Stockton home at about 5.40am. Shouting and screaming, he grabbed his frightened mother by the hair and pulled her off the bed on to the floor. He stood over her punching and kicking her head and body, prosecutor Jenny Haigh told Teesside Crown Court today. She said he stamped on her head five to 10 times during the attack on July 19, Gazette Live reports. He did not stop his violence when the mum told him to behave and asked: “What are you doing it for?” He grabbed her left arm and twisted it up her back, saying: “Never mind your broken arm. I’ll break your arm.”

She had recently undergone surgery and had metal pins inserted into that elbow after breaking it in a fall. He was eventually stopped by the victim’s mother when she came into the room. Mr Suckling went to hospital and told the receptionist he believed he had killed his mother, and the police were alerted. His mother was found still in bed, in pain, dishevelled, distressed and injured. She suffered two jaw fractures which needed surgery and later became infected, leading to her losing teeth.

She had a new fracture to her left arm and bruising and swelling below her left eye.

She later tried to help her son by saying she injured herself when she had a fit, blacked out and fell. Mr Suckling confessed to police he had returned to the house after the assault with a knife, but was prevented from seeing his mother.

Suckling was jailed for six years after admitting GBH at Teesside Crown Court

Asked whether he was sorry, he said no, adding: “I just don’t like her. I want her to die.” He later expressed remorse and regret to a probation officer. Mr Suckling, of Park Drive, Stockton, admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent. He had only one conviction for violence, assaulting a PC.

Duncan McReddie, defending, said Mr Suckling regretted the attack and the “troubled domestic background” which led to it. He said: “All parties were extremely drunk at the time. “When alcohol is introduced into situations of domestic turmoil, this is what occurs. “A young life’s worth of turmoil and resentment at what happened to him as a direct result of his mother’s conduct has boiled over on this occasion into extreme violence.

“He doesn’t offer it as an excuse. He does offer it as an explanation. “He’s had a troubled childhood and this will be his first term of imprisonment.” Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, said it was a sad case for Mr Suckling and his mother after their strained relationship over the years. He added: “As often is the case when there is a family funeral, such strains come out.”

He said Mr Suckling attacked his mother “for reasons which perhaps you still do not know”, after brooding over an argument. “It was while she was in a vulnerable state in bed, half-asleep and drunk. It was a vicious attack.”

He jailed Mr Suckling for six years.