A MAN from Ellesmere Port has been jailed for more than two years for smacking his mum’s partner over the head with a wooden plank.

Lloyd Locke, 26, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm on the basis that there was clear provocation.

Chester Crown Court heard the victim sustained a fractured skull and had been left both physically and psychologically damaged.

Paulinus Barnes, prosecuting, said the situation between the two men had been escalating and threats had been made on the phone.

On the day of the attack, the complainant is said to have “kicked his way through the gate” of Locke’s mother’s home and made threats to her.

This led the defendant to attack him with a piece of wood, hitting him once in the head and then multiple times to the body.

Maria Masselis, defending, said her client had shown “considerable remorse” for what he had done and suffered with PTSD and depression.

“This has had a real effect on the defendant over and above the ordinary stress that one would expect a defendant to be under while proceedings are ongoing,” she said.

Locke, of Aire Close, has not spoken to his mother since the incident but is looking forward to the birth of his first child this September.

He has an “excellent work ethic” and works full time, the barrister said.

However, it also emerged that the defendant has four previous convictions for six offences, including one for racially aggravated harassment.

Miss Masselis suggested the inevitable prison sentence could be suspended, given the mitigation, but Judge Simon Berkson had little hesitation in imposing immediate custody.

He told Locke he accepted there had been “clear provocation” but that he had caused the victim significant injury.

“This was a serious offence of violence causing serious injury to the partner of your mother,” the judge said.

Locke was jailed for 25 months and will spend half in prison and half on licence in the community.