THE mother of a drug addict says she feels she has lost the last 25 years of her life due to her son’s abusive behaviour.

Dennis Hooper, 38, was jailed for two years and two months after the latest in a long line of breaches of a restraining order prohibiting contact with his long-suffering mum.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard how Hooper’s repeated abusive contact with his mother had led to a restraining order, which was “breached again and again”.

He was given a 15-month prison term in February 2020 after another breach and the order was reaffirmed, banning him from contacting her or going to her Clacton address.

But after his release there was another breach in August this year.

The court heard Hooper’s mother was awoken by “loud and aggressive” banging on a rear window at her home.

Opening a curtain, she spotted her intoxicated son outside.

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Marc Brown, prosecuting, said: “She could tell straight away he was intoxicated on drugs and she was able to do that just by looking at his eyes.

“She would describe him as being off his head. She had seen him in that state many times before.

“Immediately she called the police indicating she needed help, the defendant was shouting abuse.

“She does recall him saying ‘You’ll be dead by the time I’m out’, alluding to the fact that he knew that the result of the conduct was he was going back to prison.”

The police arrived and Hooper, of Victoria Street, Ipswich, was arrested.

He admitted breaching a restraining order.

David Barr, mitigating, said Hooper had begun to make some progress towards sobriety in prison.

He said: “He has reached a stage where he feels the only place he can begin to turn around his life and his substance misuse is in prison.

“He instructs me he doesn’t seek any other outcome.”

Judge Christopher Morgan said: “It is never pleasant to deal with an individual whose life has been blighted by drug and alcohol addiction.”

He added it is often those closest to the addict, such as parents, who suffer the most.

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