A British pensioner who attempted to murder his stepson in a frenzied attack with a hammer as he slept has been jailed for 25 years in Spain.
Robert Ulph, 72, started beating his 20-year-old stepson on the head while he was in bed in the family home at Denia, a favourite resort with British expats on the Costa Blanca, north of Benidorm.
Ulph then turned on his wife when she tried to help her son during the attack on April 16, 2017, which left the young man with multiple skull fractures.
Mrs Ulph, who had married Ulph in the UK in 2004, went to her son's aid but was also struck with the hammer, a court heard earlier this month.
Her husband punched her in the stomach and attempted to suffocate her, the court in Alicante was told.
Neighbours alerted police when they saw Mrs Ulph struggling with her husband at the front door of their home.
When officers arrived he still had the hammer on him and his body was splattered with blood, a panel of three judges heard.
Ulph, who denied all charges, told the court that he could not remember attacking his stepson with a hammer.
Both the mother, who was 49 at the time, and her son had sought psychological help for post-traumatic stress disorder, the court heard.
The son also spent five months recovering from multiple head fractures.
Mrs Ulph told the court her husband repeatedly called her son "a little s***" and "a waste of empty space".
In their written sentence published on Wednesday the three judges dismissed the defence plea that Ulph was not guilty due to his mental faculties being temporarily annulled and sent him to prison for 25 years.
His two years in jail on remand will be classed as part of the prison term.
