A DRUNKEN man who attacked his 79-year-old father with a mop handle during a jealous argument was given a 16-week suspended jail sentence this week. Peter Clarke, 40, was also ordered to pay £100 compensation to his father Graham Clarke – who suffers from

A DRUNKEN man who attacked his 79-year-old father with a mop handle during a jealous argument was given a 16-week suspended jail sentence this week.

Peter Clarke, 40, was also ordered to pay £100 compensation to his father Graham Clarke - who suffers from a respiratory illness, a heart condition, and the onset of dementia.

Fenland magistrates were told that Peter Clarke had been in an "on-off" relationship with his father's carer Joanna Condon, and on July 19 the couple argued, because Clarke was jealous that she spoke to other men.

Clarke kicked a door, breaking the glass, and then turned on his father, hitting him in the face, and then hitting him over the back with the mop handle.

When Joanna Condon intervened, she hit Peter Clarke on the back of the head, and he pushed her, causing her to fall in the fireplace.

Police arrived to find Clarke in a drunken agitated state, shouting at his father, said prosecutor Marcia Duncan-Brown.

At an earlier hearing, Clarke, of Henson Close, Wisbech, had admitted assaulting his father and Joanna Condon, and causing damage to the door.

"This was a domestic problem, but they are all getting back together," solicitor John Clarke told Fenland magistrates. "He is deeply remorseful about what he did that day."

The court also ordered Clarke to pay £100 compensation for the damaged door, and £100 compensation to Joanna Condon. Over the next 30 months he will undertake the intensive domestic abuse programme and an alcohol treatment programme.