A DRUNKEN drifter pulled his pensioner mother from her bed and dragged her around her home - because he could not find his supper, a court heard today.

Kevin Williams was told he had behaved in a "disgraceful" way when he attacked the 66-year-old in her bungalow in March this year.

Williams was spared prison after a judge heard he had spent the equivalent of a nine-month sentence on remand and was determined to beat the booze.

The 44-year-old was given a 12-month jail sentence which was suspended for two years and ordered to undergo 18 months of probation supervision.

The judge, Recorder Peter Collier, QC, told the father-of-three, from Middlesbrough: "This was a most disgraceful offence.

"It is difficult to understand how anyone - even in drink - would behave in the way you did that night towards your own mother."

Teesside Crown Court heard how Williams left his mother, Ann, with a split head and covered in bruises after the late-night attack.

The assault on March 21 was the second time he had harmed his mother, and marks his fifth conviction for violence in the last 20 years.

Prosecutor Sue Jacobs said Williams turned up at the bungalow at 11pm and woke his mother demanding to know where his dinner was.

Mrs Williams told her son she had earlier made some stew, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her from the bed, screaming: "Show me."

The pensioner was dragged around and then pushed backwards and fell against the bath, causing a cut in the back of her head.

Williams was screaming his hatred of women and clawed at his mother's face as she pleaded with him to halt the frightening attack.

He then ordered her to stay on the floor as he fled the bungalow, but was arrested two days later and admitted the attack.

Williams denied allegations that he deliberately stamped on his mother's legs or that he tried to strangle her, but accepted he may have trod on her in his drunken state.

Defence barrister, Mike Bosomworth, asked Mr Recorder Collier to impose a suspended sentence because of Williams' guilty plea which saved his mother having to give evidence in court.

Mr Bosomworth said his client had been off alcohol while on remand and had a desire to stay "dry" in a bid to rebuild relationships with Mrs Williams and his partner.

"There is a prospect that he could put the past behind him and put the drink behind him and again become a decent member of society," he added.

"A suspended sentence would mean if he laid a finger on anyone - his wife, mother or any other female he came into contact with - he would face a custodial sentence."

Williams, of Cargo Fleet Lane, admitted a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.