Councillor
jailed for
drunken
attack on
mother, 87

An outspoken councillor who terrorised his 87-year-old mother until she began sleeping in her car has been jailed for four months.

Terrified Isabelle Arthur, of Swansea, South Wales, was almost dragged from her car by her hair in the attack last month.

Drunken son Simon Arthur, 44, a Liberal Democrat Mumbles community councillor, snapped when he saw her sitting in the vehicle outside their home, too scared to come inside.

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The attack continued as his mother, who uses a walking stick, fell and tried to crawl away and was only stopped when a local resident intervened and phoned the police. When they arrived, the Liberal Democrat Mumbles community councillor lunged at one with a kitchen knife.

Yesterday he was jailed at Swansea Magistrates’ Court after admitting assault by beating his mother and assaulting a police officer. The court heard he had been involved in six domestic violence incidents against his mother since August last year.

Sharon Anderson, prosecuting, said the attack last month happened after Mrs Arthur had been out for the day on July 21

To get away from her son she previously drove to a local car park and had even slept there in her car. This time, she waited in the car park and arrived home to Summerland Lane, Newton at about 8pm to find he had locked her out and so decided to sit outside in the car on the driveway to avoid a confrontation.

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Arthur spotted his mother from an upstairs window more than three hours later, at about 11.30pm, and immediately went outside and attacked her.

He tried to drag her from the car by her hair, shouting “you will burn in hell” and “you’ll suffer in the afterlife”.

“It was as if he was possessed,” she told police.

When officers arrived at the house, Arthur took a knife from a kitchen drawer and lunged at one of the PCs who disarmed him after punching him in the face.

Arthur later claimed to have no memory of the attack and said he had drunk more than a bottle of wine. He admitted other attacks on his mother during which he “pulled her hair or pushed her when she was slow doing things”.

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Nick Devonald, defending, said the past two weeks in custody, following an earlier court hearing in which he admitted the two charges of assault, had been “beneficial” in helping him reflect on what happened.

Eliot Griffiths, chairman of magistrates, told Arthur both offences passed the threshold of custody.

The court imposed an indefinite restraining order on Arthur, which prevents him living with his mother after he is released.

The local branch of the Lib Dems has suspended Arthur and is expected to expel him.