A teenage killer who battered his mother to death with a champagne bottle failed yesterday in his bid to be released early from prison.

The Lord Chief Justice ruled that Simon Geldart will have to serve at least ten years.

Geldart, from Darlington, was 17 when he attacked his sleeping mother, Kathleen, at their home in Haughton Green in 1998. She had refused to let him borrow her car.

Now aged 22, he had appealed to Lord Chief Justice Woolf to reduce his ten-year tariff - the number of years he must serve in custody before being considered for parole.

But his hopes of an early released were dashed when Lord Woolf said the ten year minimum should remain in force.

Geldart's father, Paul, is a former magistrate who once advocated the return of capital punishment for murder.

The court heard how the teenager struck his mother ten times as she slept.

Lord Woolf said: "Medical evidence showed that every bone in her head from the jawbone upwards had been broken and that she died almost immediately after the attack finished.

"He then put a pillow over her face in an attempt to suffocate her.

"Immediately after the offence, Geldart admitted to members of his family what he had done.

"During police interviews he admitted killing his mother."

But, at his trial, Geldart pleaded not guilty, claiming he had suffered "an explosion of anger" and was suffering from an abnormality of mind which reduced his responsibility for the killing.

The jury rejected that defence and convicted him of murder, but Lord Woolf said there was evidence that Geldart loved his mother and was very distressed and remorseful from the outset.

"There is evidence from the police interviews that the motive for this offence was that Geldart wished to borrow his mother's car in order to drive to London, something he knew she would not allow," he said.

Lord Woolf said Geldart had proved "a quiet prisoner" who had caused the prison authorities little difficulty.

"He is spending his time in education and has achieved a number of qualifications, including business and computing. He is currently studying for a GCSE in mathematics."

The judge said he had received representation from Geldart himself and his solicitors urging him to cut the tariff.

But he had also heard from the victim's sister, Angela Hutchinson, who stated that in her view, Geldart "should not be released until he has undergone sufficient rehabilitation to make it unlikely he will re-offend".

Lord Chief Justice Woolf, concluded: "Although Geldart has made progress and achieved a number of qualifications and believes that a tariff of less than ten years would be appropriate now, I do not recommend a change in his tariff.