A woman whose son attacked her with a chair told magistrates she was scared of her own child.

Henry Leigh, 31, shouted at the woman in the house they shared then shoved her with the legs of a chair.

In a victim impact statement read to Swindon magistrates on Wednesday, the mum-of-two, 60s, said: “I’m desperately sad to say I’m frightened of my own son who I know desperately needs help and guidance.”

Prosecutor Kate Prince said Leigh had gone back to live with his mum in Bradford-on-Avon in March. He often lost his temper with her and on August 13, the day before the attack, she went to stay with a friend and turned her phone off in order to avoid receiving abusive messages from her son.

When she got back to her home at around 4.30pm she found Leigh had left a key in the lock meaning she had to ask him to open the door. He asked her to apologise for not answering her phone and, feeling she was being goaded by the man, refused to apologise.

She was in the kitchen when he told her she had ruined her life. She pushed him with a sieve and asked him to leave her alone.

In response he shoved her into a bookcase then picked up a chair and advanced with the chair legs pointing outwards. Fearing he would throw the chair she raised her hands. He pushed it at her, scraping it down her arm.

She fled to the garden. Leigh appeared at the back door with the chair. The woman tripped over trying to get away and her son disappeared upstairs.

Leigh, of no fixed address, admitted assault by beating.

Richard Williams, defending, said his client had been diagnosed with Asperger’s and on occasion got angry and frustrated.

On the day of the offence he felt he had been treated like a child. “He eventually wants his own independence and to be treated as an adult. Reading between the lines he’s someone who doesn’t always understand the limitations he has.”

He had been sleeping in a tent or staying with a friend since being arrested last month. In order to ensure his attendance at court he had stayed at a hotel room the night before the hearing on Wednesday morning.

Leigh asked magistrates: “Can I make an apology to my mum and you guys?”

Chairman of the bench Andrew Brown replied: “I think the most important person you need to apologise to is your mother, not us.”

He was fined £200 and given a nine month community order with a requirement to do up to 12 rehabilitation activity days. The magistrates ordered he pay £180 in costs and surcharge.

A two year restraining order prevents Leigh from going to Woolley Drive, Bradford-on-Avon.