A MOTHER and son have been jailed after launching an horrific attack on a couple as part of a family feud.

Thomas Downs and Louise Hennessy carried out what a judge called a "disgraceful, sustained and prolonged" assault on Paul and Suzanne Hodgson outside the Bridgewater Hotel in Buckley Lane, Farnworth, in February.

Both attackers were jailed for two years at Bolton Crown Court yesterday and told they must stay away from the Hodgsons indefinitely as part of a restraining order.

The court heard how the two families had fallen out 10 months earlier because Hennessy accused Mrs Hodgson of taking her job.

On the evening of February 28, Mr and Mrs Hodgson were leaving the pub when they exchanged words with Downs, aged 23, and Hennessy, aged 41, both of Mallett Crescent, Doffcocker.

There had, the court heard, been an informal agreement that the two families drink in the pub at different times to avoid confrontation.

As Mr and Mrs Hodgson got into a taxi outside the pub, the defendants ran out and Downs punched Mr Hodgson with such force it knocked him out.

Downs then grabbed Mrs Hodgson by the hair and dragged her to the pavement before kicking and punching her as his mother joined in.

CCTV footage played to the court then shows Downs hitting Mr Hodgson a second time.

As he fell to the ground, Mr Hodgson hit his head on the door of the taxi and Judge Timothy Stead told Downs: "You are fortunate that he didn't sustain an even more serious injury. The result could have been catastrophic."

Bystanders managed to get the attackers off their victims, who were taken to Royal Bolton Hospital.

Mr Hodgson needed facial surgery for a serious chin injury while his wife suffered a broken nose and two black eyes.

The court heard how Mrs Hodgson told police: "I am now scared of walking out of my front door.

"I have been feeling depressed and upset, particularly because of the facial injury."

Her husband has had to change his diet because of mouth injuries suffered in an attack and said he felt nervous now when going out.

Downs had previously admitted two counts of assault and Hennessy had admitted one count of assault.

The judge was told a pre-sentence report had assessed Downs as being "nonchalant in attitude, with little victim empathy".

However, Downs’ defence counsel George Carter-Stephenson told the court he was sorry and remorseful for what he had done.

Hennessy would lose her job caring for a disabled man and would not be able to care for her two-year-old son if she was jailed, the judge was told.

While Judge Stead gave both defendants credit for their guilty pleas, he added that the joint attack on Mrs Hodgson was particularly serious because kicking and punching was involved, and so jail was necessary.

He said: "There was a longstanding fallout between the two families. Louise Hennessy — you are entitled to feel a sense of grievance against Mrs Hodgson, what you cannot do is commit offences against her or, indeed, anyone else."