A Perth man has been jailed for 30 months after a single punch left his mother needing a metal plate inserted in her face.
Christopher Gettler, 26, brutally attacked his mother when she spoke to him about his addiction to legal highs.
Gettler flew into a rage and smashed a fist into her face, knocking her over.
Rachel Nicol needed reconstructive surgery to her face after she suffered a broken left orbital socket and bleeding in her left eye.
The 45-year-old still suffers from double vision because of the incident, which took place in another son’s flat in the city’s Walker Court.
Mrs Nicol claimed she did not report the attack to the police immediately after the incident as she did not want her son to get into trouble.
However, she later contacted NHS 24 almost a week later complaining of a sore head and sickness.
She was taken by ambulance to Blairgowrie Cottage Hospital then moved to Perth Royal Infirmary where she was assessed.
Mrs Nicol was subsequently transferred to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee where she told staff the injuries had resulted from an assault.
She underwent surgery and, after the plate was inserted, was prescribed drugs for the pain. The matter was reported to police by concerned social workers.
When Mrs Nicol was interviewed by police officers she confirmed she had been the victim of an unprovoked attack, eventually confirming a family member was the perpetrator.
Solicitor Clive Culley said his client had lost control and threw a single punch, but accepts that he has an anger problem.
At Perth Sheriff Court on Wednesday, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: “The concerning thing here is that you are a young man in his mid-twenties and you already have a number of convictions for assault, and in the case of two of them serious assaults.
“It might only have been one punch but it was a punch of significant force.”
Gettler, a prisoner at Perth, pleaded guilty that on September 28 at Walker Court, Canal Street, Perth, he assaulted Rachel Nicol and punched her on the face to her severe injury.
Sheriff Foulis also ordered Gettler to undergo a 12 month supervision release order.