James Martin jailed for Falkirk rolling pin assault

James Martin (42) repeatedly struck his mum with the makeshift weapon and kicked her before abandoning her.

A judge told Martin at the High Court in Edinburgh: “On January 29 last year you brutally assaulted your mother and attempted to murder her.”

Lord Boyd of Duncansby said: “You left her lying on the floor in her own house where some three and a half hours later she was found.”

The judge said the victim was left permanently impaired by the attack on her and now has problems communicating and cannot remember how to perform simple tasks.

Lord Boyd pointed out that the murder bid was Martin’s fourth conviction in the High Court involving violence.

He told Martin: “You have a history of targeting vulnerable women.”

He said two psychologists had prepared risk assessment reports on him and concluded that he posed a high risk to the safety of the public.

The judge said he was satisfied that the risk criteria were met for imposing an Order for Lifelong Restriction on Martin.

Lord Boyd ordered that he must serve a minimum period of four years in prison under the indeterminate sentence.

He told Martin: “It means you may only be released if the Parole Board is satisfied your release would not endanger public safety.”

Martin, a prisoner in Kilmarnock, had earlier admitted attempting to murder his 64-year-old mother at a flat at Symon Tower, Seaton Place, Falkirk.

Martin went through to the kitchen and picked up the rolling pin lying on a table before he struck his mother with it several times on the head and body.

After she fell to the floor he then repeatedly struck and kicked her. He used so much force in the life-endangering attack that her dentures fell out and her glasses and earrings came off.

The victim was later found by her sister lying in the blood-spattered flat.

She told her sister that it was Martin who had attacked her and was rushed to hospital.

She suffered a bleed to the brain and multiple fractures in the assault. Some head wounds meant her skull could be seen.

When Martin was detained by police he said: “I am sorry for what happened, but I cannot remember.”

Defence counsel Sarah Livingstone said a previous report prepared on Martin found he had a low IQ.