A Maidstone mother passed out in fear after her angry son attacked her with knives during a row, a court has heard.

Furious Jordan Towner lost his temper when mum Marie asked her son's partner for help in doing some household chores.

The incident took place after 26-year-old Towner and his lover had been drinking at the Cherry Tree Pub in Maidstone.

Prosecutor Tom Dunn told Maidstone Crown Court how in July last year Mrs Towner had returned home and asked the girlfriend to help around the house.

"A little while later the girlfriend returned saying the defendant had told her that she was not to help."

The court heard how "an aggressive" Towner, who had been staying in a tent in his mother's garden, began shouting abuse at her.

Mr Dunn added: "He told her: 'You are mugging me off..who do you think you are?'

"For the first time in my life I was petrified of my son..."

"He then selected three knives from the dining room before backing his mother into a corner while clutching a knife, which he held against her neck."

"Understandably Marie Towner was terrified and began crying and revealed later she was so frightened that she passed out, " he added.

The court heard how Towner then turned the knife on himself causing injuries - while his terrified mother ran upstairs and locked herself inside her bedroom as he smashed a pint glass on the floor.

The prosecutor told how Towner then laid out three chopping knives on a table later telling his mother, three times,: 'This is going to happen, one, two ,three" before kicking in the door and then putting a knife inside his throat.

He then threw one of the knives at a window smashing it causing £300 worth of damage.

Mrs Towner said later: "For the first time in my life I was petrified of my son, so much so that this incident made me pass out and I struggle to remember what actually happened.I am heartbroken."

Mr Dunn said the attack came just months after Towner, of Springwood Road, Maidstone, received a suspended sentence for an incident involving a child and a BB gun.

He was jailed for a total of nine months after admitting the assault and causing criminal damage.

Judge Stephen Tomas told him his reaction to his girlfriend being asked to do chores was "totally unreasonable."

"You behaved in a violent aggressive way. This was an unpleasant incident and your mother must have been very frightened."

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