A BULLYING son verbally and physically abused his mother seeking money to pay for his cannabis addiction, a court heard.

Amid increasingly violent torment inflicted by Kieron Jackson, his mother, Andrea, walked into Seaham Police bearing significant bruising to her arms and legs, in April this year.

Durham Crown Court was told she informed police she had been assaulted by her son using a walking stick.

Victoria Lamballe, prosecuting, said Mrs Jackson was taken to hospital due to her injuries, which included a lower leg infection caused by her having tried to self-treat her wounds.

A detailed account was given of the extensive physical and emotional abuse suffered at her son’s hands since they moved to Murton from their home of the previous decade, in Stanhope.

She said the move was triggered because her son was the victim of an attack.

Mrs Jackson said the abuse was initially verbal, but “sky rocketed” and became physical on moving to Murton, due to his cannabis dependency which she believed made him paranoid.

It included him striking her on the arms and legs with a walking stick, dragging her by her hair, pulling her off chairs, punching her from behind and at one stage she feared he had broken her collar bone after being flung onto a bed.

She said her son became particularly violent when she had no money to give him for drugs and she ran up debts of £3,000, going without a telephone, any internet connection, food or gas at one Christmas-time.

When police spoke to Jackson, he claimed his mother’s account was exaggerated, although he admitted she paid for his cannabis use. But he claimed he never bullied or threatened her.

Jackson, 20, of South Coronation Street, Murton, was charged with controlling or coercive behaviour in a family relationship.

He admitted the charge at a previous hearing.

Harry Crowson, in mitigation, told the sentencing hearing that Jackson’s drug use developed after he suffered an attack, in 2016, and he turned to the drug as a “coping mechanism” to escape the trauma of mental health difficulties, anxiety and paranoia.

But he added that since his behaviour was reported to police, Jackson had managed to come off cannabis, but is no longer in contact with his mother.

Jailing him for 20 months, Judge James Adkin told Jackson he ought to be ashamed of his behaviour towards his mother.

“You have bullied your own mother to feed your own drug habit, threatening and intimidating her, causing her to build up debts of £3,000.

“She was left in a pitiful state due to the violence you inflicted on her.”

A licence condition on his release will be to avoid contact with his mother or her sister.