A MAN with a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ personality launched a drunken, sustained attack on his father in his own home after spending the night drinking whisky and playing cards.

Danny Murray punched, kicked and stamped on his defenceless father before using a knife to cut his arm during the brutal attack in February last year.

Despite the victim suffering a fracture to collar bone, a small contusion to his brain and cuts and bruises to his arms and body, he urged the court not to jail his son and instead give him support for his mental health issues.

Matthew Collins, prosecuting, said Murray’s father had given him a place to stay after he was arrested for driving at a man in Sherburn, County Durham, after an argument erupted when he found the man in his former partner’s home when called round to say goodnight to his children in August 2018.

Mr Collins said the pair had argued before the defendant left the home in Carlin How, east Cleveland, before returning and eventually launching the prolonged attack.

He said: “They drank whisky before the defendant flipped and started throwing items around. The defendant then punched his father, he tried to protect himself, but he blacked out, he awoke in a different room and the defendant was punching, kicking and stamping on his father.

“He then used a knife to cut his father’s arm before he managed to escape and seek refuge in a neighbour’s house.”

During the earlier incident in Sherburn, Mr Collins said Murray had drank 12 cans of Carlsberg before driving to his former partner’s home where the confrontation took place.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Murray was punched before jumping in his car and driving ‘erratically’ towards his victim and pinning him to another vehicle before smashing into garden fences.

The 30-year-old, of Alfred Street, Redcar, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, grievous bodily harm and criminal damage in relation to the incident in august 2018 and to a further charge of GBH and criminal damage following his attack on his father.

In mitigation, Gary Wood, said Murray had shown genuine remorse for the injuries that he had caused his father and urged the judge to suspend any custodial sentence as he had been remanded in custody since September.

Judge Howard Crowson sentenced Murray to 20 months in prison for the GBH offences and a further eight months for the dangerous driving. He was also banned from driving for two years and nine months.