A mother who was told by her son that she had not brought him up properly and had lied to him, was then punched by him in the arm and leg before he locked her out of the house in the early hours in her nightclothes.

Lorne Jodi Douce, 28, of St Thomas Street, Penryn, pleaded guilty to assaulting his mother, Lesley, on November 5 when he appeared before magistrates in Truro.

Alison May, for the CPS, said Douce lived with his mother and his behaviour had deteriorated since he lost his father in 2006. Struggling to deal with that loss he had become increasingly aggressive and abusive towards her, regularly picking fights and starting arguments, and then throwing things around in the home.

On November 5, his mother had gone to bed, when he went into her bedroom, shouted at her and said: “I’ll f….g punch your head in,” accusing her of lying to him. The only way to deal with liars was to stab and kill them, he said, before punching her. When she went outside the house, he locked the door behind her.

She told the police she was frightened of what he would do in the future and did not want him living with her. “He is awful to me,” she said.

Douce, who had previous convictions, was represented by solicitor Mark Charnley who said he was a loner, isolated by his own behaviour, taking offence easily, which got him into difficulties in relationships. He had been seen by the mental health team. Hopefully bridges could be repaired with his mother, and he was no longer living at her address.

Douce was given 100 hours of unpaid work in the community, told to pay £295 costs and charges and £100 compensation to his mother. The magistrates also made a retraining order to protect her.