A 25-YEAR-old who fractured a disabled man's skull when he hit him over the head with a piece of wood after he taunted his father over child sex abuse charges, has been jailed for 14 months.

Martin Saunders lashed out at Peter Gallagher, 45, after he had been heard shouting 'paedo' outside the family home in Park South.

The incident took place the day after a jury failed to reach verdicts on Saunders' dad Michael, 52, who was later jailed for 17 years for child sex abuse after a second trial.

David Maunder, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Gallagher had been drinking with a friend on Friday, November 29, when they decided to go for a kebab.

After leaving his home in Kemerton Walk he walked past the Saunders' house in Ainsworth Road.

Over the previous two years there had been bad blood between the victim and the defendant's 21-year-old sister, Amanda, the court was told.

Words were exchanged between Gallagher and the family as he passed, and on the way back from the kebab shop he noticed three people outside the Saunders' house.

After Gallagher shouted 'paedo' at the dad, Amanda approached him and punched him twice, causing him to push her away, Mr Maunder said.

"With this, this defendant approached him armed with a metal object, certainly a hard object, and struck him to the top of the head," said Mr Maunder.

"The blow sent him to the floor. While he was on the floor he was screaming.

"He was then further attacked on the floor involving others."

He said Amanda Saunders then shouted 'you deserve this', along with a volley of vile abuse.

A policeman called to the scene described Gallagher's head as being 'sliced open' and when he got to hospital he was found to have a seven to 10-inch cut.

He suffered fractures to his skull, both eye sockets and left cheekbone and was taken to a neurology department in Oxford as medics feared a brain injury, the court was told.

Mr Maunder said the victim suffers dystonia, which causes muscle spasms and fits, and also had post traumatic stress disorder following another assault in 1994.

As a result of the attack both conditions have worsened, he said, and treatment he was due to received had to be put back.

Saunders, of Ainsworth Road, Park South, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm.

He insisted he had used a piece of wood he found in the front garden from a cupboard which was being dismantled.

Mike Pulsford, defending, said his client had no previous convictions and described the incident as a single blow and a moment of madness.

Some of the injuries appear to have been caused when he struck his head on the tow bar of a parked car and then the pavement as he fell, he said.

While the victim claimed he had been badly affected by the attack he said it hadn't stopped him goading his client and family.

He said: "The Saunders family have this tag now that their father has been sentenced as a paedophile. Mr Gallagher seems to have made that a tag of abuse that he makes as he passes from time to time."

Jailing him, Judge Peter Blair QC, said: "I accept you were seriously provoked by this man, he clearly has not helped himself by the way he has conducted himself.

"I accept you did not premeditate this and it happened in front of you and blew up. You were trying to help your sister, albeit in an appalling, excessive way."

Saunders and his dad had both been due to face trial charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent and alongside Amanda, who denied a charge of causing GBH.

After Martin admitted the lesser charge the case were dropped against Michael, because he is serving such a long sentence, and Amanda, who was made subject to a restraining order keeping her away from Gallagher.