A MAN was jailed after he put a mother and son in hospital by battering them with a broom handle.

Susan Skene, 50, bravely tried to break up a disturbance on her doorstep in Loftus when she was wakened by a racket at 2am.

She found a group of shouting men, and one of them Steven Skiba,24, leaned over another lad and hit her on the head with the pole.

He then struck her son Lee,27, on the head also and both victims were bleeding.

The gang then made off and the police were called, said prosecutor Richard Parsell.

Mrs Skene and her son were taken to hospital where she needed four stitches and his wound was glued.

Skiba was arrested five months later and he said that he had drunk seven or eight pints of beer, vodka and Red Bull when he saw two men attacking his friend, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Date Dodds, defending, said that Skiba had no recollection of the incident, but he claimed that an attacker was one of the Skene family.

She added: "That is no justification but it is part of the background.

"This matter is now over 12 months ago and he has made strenuous efforts to put his life in order because he has realised what the long-term consequences of his behaviour could be.

"He had drastically reduced his drinking because he knows what alcohol can do to him, and the consequences thereafter."

Judge Michael Taylor told Skiba: "You were absolutely drunk which is not an unusual feature of your character and you have appeared in court before.

"You know that that sort of behaviour cannot go unpunished. People who deliberately indulge in drink and then use weapons and cause injury cannot be overlooked by the courts."

Skiba, of East Street, Loftus, was jailed for 12 months after he pleaded guilty to the August 2006 affray.