Thug threw mother into garden like 'piece of rubbish'

Frail Elaine Icke was left with a hip broken in two places, a fractured shoulder, facial injuries, a significant cut and bad bruising after the attack at her Wolverhampton home, a judge was told.

The 77-year-old, who had little use in her left arm following a stroke four years earlier, died in a nursing home on November 22, two months after the attack by her 32-year-old son Stephen, who had acted as her carer for a ‘significant’ period, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

An investigation did not find a direct link between her death and the beating and he faced no charge in relation to the death. Her family have still not been able to hold her funeral.

Tragedy struck after the defendant flew into a rage on September 21. He punched out windows and smashed ornaments around their home in Sambrook Road, Fallings Park, it was said.

Mrs Icke later told police she had gone upstairs before being pushed off the bed and repeatedly ‘whacked’ in the face by him.

A passer-by saw Stephen Icke carrying what looked like a roll of carpet under his arm, said Miss Sharon Bahia, prosecuting.

This was his mother, whom he was holding by the midriff, and he either dropped or threw her from waist height onto the front garden. The witness said Mrs Icke lay in a silent heap.

The witness rushed home with her two young children and called the police. Another person had seen Mrs Icke attempting to grab hold of the door frame in a bid to stop herself being pushed out of the house, the court heard.

Mr Michael Edmonds, defending, said the stress of being a carer could not explain the outburst, which was ‘unforgivable,’ out of character and had ‘devastatingly’ affected many people.

The son – now ‘excommunicated’ from the rest of his family – could not explain why he ‘completely lost it.’ He had drunk alcohol ‘moderately’ and had not taken drugs.

The defendant pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent and criminal damage and was jailed for seven and a half years by Judge Dean Kershaw who said Mrs Icke had been thrown into the garden ‘as if she was a piece of rubbish to be discarded’.

When the victim was asked what she wanted for her son after the attack she replied: ‘I want him to grow up.’

The judge concluded: “She had the forgiveness only a mother can have and still saw good in you. You will have to live with the knowledge that one of the last memories she had was of you assaulting her.”