A MAN has been jailed for three years after burning his 73-year-old mother with a heated fork during two years in which he made her life a misery.

Damian Southern, 44, was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court yesterday on a video link to Leeds Prison where he was remanded in custody for a series of drunken and bullying offences against her.

Southern, now of no fixed address, was living with his mother at her home in Brighouse after being given a suspended jail term in 2017 for two offences of common assault against her.

He was banned from seeing her by a restraining order but in April, 2019, he moved back into her home after the order had expired and made her life a misery over the following two years.

The court heard that he drank all day while watching YouTube videos.

In June this year, a jury found Southern guilty of controlling or coercive behaviour and he was also convicted of an assault charge relating to an incident on January 8.

Prosecutor Abdul Shakoor said Southern was arguing with his mother in the kitchen when he picked up a fork and heated it over the gas ring. When he moved towards her with it, she put up her arm to defend herself and the fork burned her on her wrist.

He was arrested for an offence of common assault against his mother in April and went on to plead guilty.

His mother told the jury he was “a bully” during his trial for the denied offences.

John Bottomley said in mitigation that Southern had started drinking heavily fol-lowing the death of his father in 2011.

He had lost his job and his friends and now realised that the alcohol was affecting his physical and mental health.

Judge Neil Davey QC made an indefinite restraining order banning Southern from having any contact with his mother.

He jailed him for a total of three years for controlling or coercive behaviour, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault.

“All these three offences are made the more serious because they were all committed under the influence of alcohol and because they were not the first time that you had offended against your mother,” he said.

“It is plain to see, and you know as well as anybody, that alcohol and its excessive misuse is at the root of all your problems and at the root of all your offending,” he continued.