A plumber was confronted by his hammer-wielding dad after revealing he was a love-cheat.

Darryl Joyce-Gill told his step-mum about his two-timing dad Jonathon - but ended up in court himself.

The 25-year-old, of Herne Avenue, Herne Bay, retaliated after being confronted in his car by his furious dad, who was armed with a hammer.

Joyce-Gill later told police: "I told my step-mum that my father had been cheating. So I said to her: "Sorry Jane to have to tell you but dad has been cheating on you. You should know what scum he is."

"Then I get a text (from his father) saying: 'You'll lose out more. I've done it. Don't bother me no more. You'e dead to me.'"

Later that night, Joyce-Gill's partner Polly rang him to tell him to "look out... be worried" after his father was seen waiting outside his home.

James Bilsland, prosecuting, told Canterbury Crown Court that Joyce-Gill got into his car to go to work the following day when he spotted his father with a hammer.

He later told officers: "I'm just panicking. I've tried scrambling over to the passenger's side.

"I was like: 'Dad, dad, dad' and he said: 'I'm not your dad. You're dead to me, remember?'

"I am scared for my life. I have nothing, no weapons, nothing. I was panicked. I wrestled him for the hammer as much as I could. First time, I failed. The second time I managed to get the hammer off him."

The prosecutor said Joyce-Gill then went after his father and hit him on the arm in retaliation. The father was charged with assault, but the case was later dropped.

Magistrates found the son guilty of assault in January and wrote to the judge saying they found the father's evidence "not creditable" and they accepted that he had attacked his son.

They added that "they did not believe the father's story that he had arranged to meet his son to lend him some money", but they ruled that Joyce-Gill should not have retaliated.

He had been sent to the crown court for sentence because the assault had been committed in breach of two previous suspended sentences.

Peter Forbes, defending, said the father - who was in the public gallery to watch his son being sentenced - had been the instigator of the confrontation with his son.

"He had waited for him outside his home and he had a hammer before this defendant disarmed him and then struck just the one blow."

The judge Recorder Heather Norton ordered him to do 80 hours' unpaid work, telling him he had not acted in self-defence but in retaliation.