A man charged with attacking his mother and giving her a black eye at her home in Hove has been found not guilty by a jury.
Richard Hearnden, prosecuting, told jurors that Alex Neill, 41, assaulted his mother Sharon Glynn, causing her actual bodily harm (ABH).
She suffered the black eye during a row at her home in Westbourne Street, Hove, while Neill was staying in another flat in the same building.
He had been released from prison a few days before, the jury was told at Hove Crown Court.
Neill, formerly of Warren Road, Brighton, denied assault and said that he had been defending himself from attack by someone else in his mother’s flat.
Andrew Stephens, defending, told the jury, that Neill admitted that he had hit his mother but it was an accident as he tried to fend off another man.
Mr Stephens said that “there was turmoil” and said: “He was not acting unlawfully but was acting in lawful self-defence.”
The incident happened in January last year when someone overheard the fracas and called the police.
Mr Hearnden said: “Alex Neill punched his mum deliberately – not by accident and not in self-defence.”
She had been cross with him and had said so, according to Mr Hearnden, and Neill, in turn, was annoyed with his mother.
Neill was acquitted yesterday (Tuesday 11 February) at the end of a two-day trial at Hove Crown Court before Recorder Amy Packham.
What did his mother say?