Daniel West, 19, admitted to knifing his 20-year-old brother during a drunken argument.

But he pleaded that he acted in self-defence because he and his mother had suffered years of abuse at the hands of William West.

The mother, Hayley Noble-Jones, was among a packed public gallery of family and friends supporting Daniel at Teesside Crown Court.

She embraced her only surviving son, who looked overcome by emotion, outside the courtroom only minutes after hearing Judge Peter Fox pass a 12-month sentence suspended for two years.

On November 18, last year, both men had been drinking heavily at separate parties and pubs before arriving back at their home in Helmsley Street, Hartlepool.

An argument then broke out in the early hours of morning that ended with William lying in a pool of blood in the living room with stab wounds to his heart and liver.

Michael Shorrock QC, mitigating, said William had become more and more aggressive as the day went on which was shown in a text message sent to his mum by a friend who was with William.

It said: "William's kicking off again. He's going to get you and punch your head in."

He had also been to his father's house and asked for a knife but was told to go away.

Daniel had originally told police he was punched and pinned down on the sofa by William, who tried to stab him, but he managed to turn the knife on his brother.

But an autopsy proved that the stab wounds did not fit into that story.

In the pre-sentence report Daniel stated he cannot now remember what happened after his brother hit him, up to looking down on his brother with a bloodied knife.

Franz Muller QC, prosecuting, said Daniel had jumped out of a first floor window after the stabbing because the front door was locked – before calling to neighbours "you need to help me I think I've killed my brother".

A kitchen knife with William's DNA was found on the street below the window.

Mr Muller added that Daniel has a violent past after being sentenced for assault occasioning actual bodily harm when he was 16. He and a group of friends had beat up a 40-year-old who was walking alone in Seaton Carew.

Sentencing Daniel, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, Judge Peter Fox QC said: "Your punishment I have no doubt will be life long. It will be the lasting knowledge and awareness of the sorrow you have caused to yourself, but most especially, to your mother.

"Your own remorse is all too plain."

He added that the provocation against Daniel was "exceptional and extreme".

Daniel, who worked at AJ Car Wash in Catcote Road, had previously pleaded not guilty to murder but the court accepted a guilty plea for manslaughter due to provocation.