A MAN walked into a hospital and told staff he thought he had killed his mother after attacking her as she slept.

Daniel Suckling launched the vicious assault hours after a family funeral and a wake at the home of his grandparents.

The 21-year-old repeatedly kicked and punched his mother after dragging her out of bed, and stamped on her head up to ten times.

The victim - who had recently had surgery on a fractured elbow - also had her arm twisted up her back, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Jenny Haigh said Suckling told her: "Never mind your broken arm, I'll break your arm and the other one."

After being pulled from the attack by his grandmother, Suckling left the house in Stockton and went to a nearby hospital.

Staff raised the alarm with the police, and officers found the victim in bed " dishevelled, distressed and injured", said Miss Haigh.

When Suckling was interviewed, he said he had no memory of the attack and was not sorry, adding: "I just don't like her. I want her to die."

The court heard how he had "a whole life's worth of turmoil and resentment" because he was put into the care of his grandparents at the age of six because of his mother's addictions.

Duncan McReddie, mitigating, told Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC: "This is a fraught set of circumstances with a troubled domestic background."

Suckling, of Park Drive, Stockton, was jailed for six years after he admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

His victim suffered a double fracture to her jaw, and a fresh break to her left arm - originally broken and repaired with pins when she tripped over a dog.

Initially, she tried to protect her son by claiming she had had a fit, blacked out, and woke with the injuries, but then refused to make a complaint.

Mr McReddie said: "He is a very young man. He has had a troubled childhood and this will be a first term of imprisonment.

"A young life's worth of turmoil and resentment has boiled over on this occasion into extreme violence."

Judge Bourne-Arton told Suckling: "It was a vicious attack, deliberate targeting of her injured arm, and the use of your foot."