The Londonderry Crown Court has sentenced a man to a two-year imprisonment for beating up his mother, hurting her in the face and body, in their residence.

The court said Gerald McKinney, 25, had committed a cowardly and savage attack, BBC news reported.

McKinney hit his mother nine times, including in her eyes, in their residence in Ballymgaroarty last February, BBC News added.

McKinney, who was reported to have a substantial criminal record for violence, has been detained since two days after the incident.

In March 2005, Ukgaynews.org reported that a Londonderry man named Gerald McKinney, 22, had confessed to having kicked, punched, and stabbed a gay man in the city in 2004. McKinney was then sentenced to a three-year jail term.

McKinney would be on a 15-month probation after serving the three-year sentence, ukgaynews.org added in the same news article.

The same articles said McKinney has agreed to be treated for addiction in a center, as well as attend anger management classes, as well as live at his mother's house as he is expected to also and work on his basic educational skills, it added.