A NEWPORT man has been jailed for 16 months for attacking his stepfather in the middle of the night.

Darren Wassall, 39, of Caerau Road, attacked his 61-year-old stepfather, John Castagna, at his home in Maindee on October 26. Mr Castagna needed six stitches following the attack, and later said he had feared for his life.

Mr Castagna spoke to the Argus after Wassall pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and criminal damage at Newport Crown Court on November 7.

Mr Castagna, who divorced Wassall’s mother in the late 1990s but has since remarried, said: “I thought I was a goner. I was in bed and had gone into a deep sleep, as I often do. The missus wakes me up when she hears a glass smashing, so I put on my dressing-gown.

“He had broken the window downstairs and came to my bedroom in the middle of the night – I didn’t have a sporting chance. He attacked me, but I managed to push him to the hallway and put all my weight on him, but he was headbutting and punching me. My wife was frozen but I told her to run – I thought I was going to die. Somehow I went downstairs after my wife to see if she was OK but he chased after me, and he kicked me to the floor.”

Wassall fled after a neighbour came to the door, and the police arrived soon after.

Mr Castagna said there had been no animosity between the pair when they last met and did not understand why his stepson had attacked him.

“I knew he was violent but he’s never done anything like this to me before,” Mr Castagna added. “I have pictures of him when he was a kid, and of days out when we went to the Transporter Bridge. I fed him, brought him up and treated him as my own son and then he goes and attacks me for no reason at all.

“I’m 61 and had an operation on my knee only 18 months ago – I’m not a fighter. He was fully aware of what he was doing, he wasn’t drunk. I’m still in shock and my wife can’t stop crying – she’s traumatised.”

Judge Daniel Williams called the incident “a serious case”.

Wassall was given a 16-month prison sentence and a restraining order was made preventing him from contact with Mr Castagna until further notice.