A YOUNG drug-user’s reaction to his persistent requests for money being rejected by his mother was to lock her in the porch and threaten to slit her throat, a court heard.

James Kovacs was subject of a suspended sentence for an attack in which he spat at his mother, in similar circumstances, when the latest incident took place at the family home in Beechfield, Newton Aycliffe, on July 16.

Durham Crown Court was told that over several hours he sent his mother 86 increasingly expletive-ridden messages from his bedroom asking for money, which he said he needed to repay a debt, but which she suspected was for him to buy more drugs.

Phillip Morley, prosecuting, said: “She felt harassed and refused him money.”

Angered by the refusals, Kovacs, 20, left his room and kicked his sister’s bedroom door, and shortly afterwards she saw him returning up the stairs carrying two knives.

He told her she was, “not going to get out”, so she barricaded herself in her room.

Kovacs then went back downstairs and locked his mother in the porch.

He poked the tip of one of the knives through the letter box, telling her she ought to sleep with one eye open as he would slit her throat.

Mr Morley said she escaped by climbing through a window, with the help of neighbours, injuring her back and a leg in doing so.

Police were called and when Kovacs was arrested he handed over a prepared statement, in interview, admitting causing damage in the house, but made ‘no comment’ to further questions.

Appearing at a recent plea hearing however, he admitted harassment, affray and criminal damage.

His six past convictions for 18 offences, include previous assaults on his mother.

In a victim statement she said she found 40 empty cocaine bags in her son’s bedroom and she felt his requests for money were to pay for more drugs.

She said her son had mental health and anger management issues, which were exacerbated by his drug misuse, and for which she has tried to get him sectioned.

Nicholas Askins, for Kovacs, said he has anxiety and depressive disorders which are aggravated by his drug misuse.

Mr Askins described Kovacs’ persistent messaging of his mother as, “begging” and “pitiful”.

Imposing a 15-month prison sentence, Judge James Adkins told Kovacs: “The problem is you are a class A drug addict, with a bad temper, who bullies his mother.”

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