Mum held like recluse after attack by son

Paul Burns, 49, was told by Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC he had been a “hair’s breadth” from being jailed for an assault on his 86-year-old mother.

Burns had admitted at an earlier hearing to causing Rose Burns actual bodily harm, on August 7, last year, when he lived with her in Addingham.

Bradford Crown Court heard he drank three pints of lager at Addingham Social Club before returning home and having an argument with his mother about the whereabouts of their cat.

She brandished scissors but the court heard he accepted in sober mind she posed no risk to him. He grabbed for the scissors, causing her to fall from her bed.

A statement from her revealed she had suffered “something of a torment” because of her son who, the court heard, drank alcohol when difficulties arose.

Prosecutor Richard Smith said Burns, a videographer, had equipment in nearly every room.

Mrs Burns was confined to her room, with use of the kitchen and bathroom, and would eat her breakfast on the stairs.

“She felt she lived like a recluse, incarcerated in her own room,” he said. “He took control of her post, bank cards, stopped her seeing friends on occasions.”

He said Mrs Burns’s confidence had been shattered and she no longer felt safe in her home.

Judge Durham Hall said Burns had “flung back” the love and care his mother had shown.

He said: “You have made her life something of a torment for some time, no doubt through the drink and personality problems and lack of moral fibre, you were not quite the man that your friends and others think you are.”

Burns, of North Avenue, Bradford, was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for two years, with supervision for 12 months and was ordered to complete 200 hours’ unpaid work.

The judge added: “Elderly relatives are to be cherished, they are to be loved and they are to be protected and those who turn against them in this brutal way will be punished.”