A 37-year-old man who threatened to kill his own mum as he attacked her has escaped jail.

But James Brown, of Ashley Road, Bradford on Avon, has been banned from going to the road where his parents live and must reside where the probation service direct for the next two years.

Brown, who admitted actual bodily harm, was on a suspended sentence for putting a former girlfriend in fear of violence through harassment at the time of the attack.

But a judge at Swindon Crown Court decided to pass a suspended jail term on Friday, saying Brown, who had served about five months in custody on remand, could be better monitored on the order.

Nicola Jennings, prosecuting, said events unfolded on Thursday, October 9 at the family home.

The court heard Jennifer Brown was in the kitchen at about 1pm making a cake when her son got up and she remarked, ‘You had a good lie in James’.

Brown, who was making some coffee, picked up the glass container and smashed it on the ground before shouting abuse and punching his mum.

She tried to run away but he grabbed her saying, ‘Now you’re going to suffer like I have,’ and put his arm across her throat.

Mrs Brown was totally helpless and when she told him she feared she was going to die if he continued he replied: ‘That’s the idea: I am going to kill you’.

His grasp got tighter so she couldn’t breathe at all and thinking she was going to die she dropped her body weight and the two fell to the floor.

Her son then smashed her head into the fridge door and told her ‘this is better than having my arm around your throat, isn’t it? You’re going to die. I’m going to kill you. Your time is up.’ She told him there was someone at the door and when he looked she managed to get free out of the back door and he sped off in his car.

He went to where his father was working and told him ‘I just tried to strangle her’.

He was put on 36 week jail term suspended for two years in June last year for sending threatening texts to a woman he had been in a brief relationship with.

Alex Daymond, defending, said he was being treated for deep seated mental health issues and had been in custody on remand for 146 days.

Judge William Hart said by imposing a suspended sentence, he could keep him away from his parents’ home for two years and require him to receive help for his mental health problems.

He told him: “You carried out an extremely frightening attack on your mother who was vulnerable and defenceless.

“You did that at a time when you had not been taking the medication you should have been taking for reasons of your own.”

He jailed him for 40 weeks, suspended for two years, and imposed a supervision requirement, mental health requirement, residence requirement and an exclusion requirement banning him from Ashley Road.