AN alcoholic who held a knife to his sister's throat and attacked his mother during a drunken "tantrum" was this afternoon starting a 20-month jail sentence.

David Bell – a former newspaper photographer – was said by his lawyer to have turned to booze after witnessing traumatic events carrying out his job.

Bell has 46 offences on his record, including 12 for violence – and once head-butted his father for buying him the wrong kind of chicken nuggets.

Judge Peter Armstrong told the 48-year-old that his latest rampage at the home he shared with his elderly parents in Hartlepool was "an appalling episode".

The judge said: "To assault someone in their own home is an aggravating feature. Because of the amount of drink you had had, you were uncontrollable.

"These offences are so serious because they involve your mother and sister. Your parents have done what they can, but they are at the end of their tether."

Bell's sister said in an impact statement that she feared she was going to be murdered when she was grabbed and had the kitchen knife held to her throat.

She described the incident as "the worst I have ever encountered with him", said she is still "wary and frightened" and suffers nightmares about it.

Her mother, 79, said in her statement that she is "weary, sickened and cannot take any more" after helping Bell emotionally and financially for years.

Bell's lawyer said he was intelligent and articulate, got good exam grades and studied quantity surveying at university before becoming a photographer.

Andrew Teate said: "In that line of work, he was taking photographs of tragic circumstances, difficult scenes, and things that ultimately affected him greatly.

"This led to the loss of his employment, the breakdown of his marriage, and the destruction of his home . . . he has gone on to consume copious amounts of alcohol."

Bell, who now has an address of Brockett Close, Newton Aycliffe, admitted two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm from June.

Judge Armstrong told him: "There are quiet drinkers and there are violent drinkers. You are a violent drinker. There are alcoholics who are hopeless alcoholics.

"I don't think you have reached that stage yet, but you may have reached rock bottom because you are going to serve another custodial sentence."

Bell, who had downed whisky and beer before the attack on June 14, had only been out of prison for a few days for assaulting his wife.

On the day of the double attack, his ill father had been taken into hospital, and when he returned home drunk, his mother called him "a selfish pig".

Mr Teate told the court that he slid off the sofa to the floor, and started banging his arms and legs on the carpet "like a child having a tantrum".

He punched and kicked both women, dragged them around the house – leaving them bruised and cut – and spat in his mother's face, said Mrs Jacobs.