South Yorkshire Times, Friday, August 26, 1932

Bolton Brute Violent

Assault on Widowed Mother

Lawrence Holbrook, a Bolton-on-Dearne butcher, was sent to prison for six weeks by the Doncaster magistrates on Tuesday as the result of an unusual assault charge.

The complainant was his mother, Sarah Holbrook, a widow, aged 60, who lives at Adwick-on-Dearne.

Mr. A. S. Furniss, who represented Mrs. Holbrook, remarked that it was, in his experience, unique for a mother to have to take such steps against her own son. It was stated that Holbrook left home when a youth of seventeen and had been a cause of frequent trouble since then. On a recent Sunday he call d at his mother’s house and wanted a pump and motor jack.

Mrs. Holbrook said that as he did not ask for them in a proper manner she did not give them to him, and he then committed the assault. He got hold of his mother by the hair and throat and threw her down. When she got up he dashed her down again. Her two daughters went to her assistance and Holbrook got bold of them by their throats and threw them down, too.

Mrs. Holbrook suffered from severe shock and had to have ‘medical attention.

lnspector Redfern stated that Holbrook had been convicted seventeen times, mostly for poaching. He had one previous conviction for assault.