A MAN who struck his pensioner mother with a glass bottle in an “unprovoked and unpleasant assault” had been hearing voices in the lead up to the attack.

Mark Middleton had been sleeping on his parent’s sofa at their Andover home when he believed a voice in his head was telling him that his mother, aged in her 80s, was trying to poison him.

Middleton, who suffers with paranoid schizophrenia, had been self-medicating since 2017 following a period of good health and a stay in a mental health hospital.

On April 11, last year, Middleton’s father woke and went into the living room to find his son pacing and was told that the 49-year-old had not been taking his medication.

Minutes later Middleton’s father heard a scream and could not see his son.

At Winchester Crown Court on Friday last week, Dawn Hyland, prosecuting said: “The defendant had taken an empty glass bottle from downstairs and taken it up to the bedroom.”

Middleton’s mother was found with serious injuries and emergency services were called.

Following the attack, the former astrophysics student went missing from a secure unit in June last year before was arrested in a hotel room in London.

The court heard that Middleton began to suffer with mental health issues in 1997, then in 2001 and in 2004, and was sectioned for a period of time.

Rufus Taylor, defending, said: “On discharge he was well for about nine years until about 2017 when he stopped it [the medication]. Not sure why he stopped it, he wanted to see what it was like not being medicated which led to this.”

Middleton moved in with his parents after he was “extremely lonely” living on his own.

“Towards the end of that year he began to hear a voice telling him his mother was trying to poison him. It was becoming more and more instant and more persuasive,” Mr Taylor added.

Following his arrest Middleton has been held in a psychiatric unit and has been medicated.

In sentencing, Middleton was given a hospital order for fears he is a danger to not only himself but to members of the public.

Middleton had pleaded guilty to wounding with intent at an earlier hearing.

Judge Keith Cutler said: “[This was an] unprovoked and unpleasant assault. There is absolutely no doubt she [Middleton’s mother] suffered horrific wounds and serious injuries as a result of this matter.”