A YORK mother has told of her heartache after her son nearly died in a violent attack.

Jane Blythe said her 34-year-old son, Adam, suffered devastating injuries including a fractured skull, jaw, cheekbone, ribs and hand, as well as a damaged ear and eye sockets, in the incident earlier this year at a property in Blyth, Northumberland.

“When I got to the hospital in Newcastle they said he was more dead than alive,” said Mrs Blythe, of Brompton Road, Clifton. “He was in a coma for several days. When I saw him in intensive care I just couldn’t believe it.

“His eyes were swollen and purple, and there were wires and pipes and drips everywhere. It was horrendous. His pillow was soaked in blood which had poured out of his ear.”

She said Adam was now on the road to recovery, but he had suffered some brain damage, which currently made it difficult for him to speak as quickly as he would like. “He gets very frustrated by that,” she said.

She told how her nightmare began one Saturday evening as she was getting ready to go to bed and she got a call from Newcastle police to say her son had been seriously injured in an incident.

“I said I couldn’t drive, and within 20 minutes a police car turned up and I was driven up to Scotch Corner at 90mph, where I was picked up by police from Newcastle to be taken to the hospital,” she said. “That’s when I realised just how serious it was. They didn’t think he would survive.”

She said she had been heartened by the reaction of people in Blyth, where Adam had been living as a homeless man, who had rallied round and raised money for him.

She said Adam had been suffering from mental health problems in recent years, which resulted in him being jailed in 2010 for spraying graffiti slogans on buildings including York Minster and Clifford’s Tower, which referred to his belief that cancer was the result of babies receiving brain implants.

She said she had been up to Newcastle twice a week since Adam was injured to visit him in hospital. “It’s been a total nightmare,” she said, revealing that this was why she had bid £250 for a VIP day at Bootham Crescent at the weekend in The Press’ City of York Afghanistan Commemorative Appeal auction.

“It’s been so horrendous that I wanted to do something positive for me and my husband, Ian, to have something for us to enjoy after all the heartache,” she said.

She and her husband and grandson McKenzie watched York’s match against Accrington Stanley from seats in a box, met manager Nigel Worthington and the man of the match after the game, and returned home with a signed York City football.

“It was fabulous,” she said. “We enjoyed every minute. I even got to pick the man of the match and present him with a bottle of champagne, and Nigel Worthington was lovely.”

* Two men and a woman have been charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and are due to appear at Newcastle Crown Court next month.