LIKE all parents Liz Webster had hopes and dreams for her eldest son.

She wanted Henry to make her proud by going to university to study engineering.

But the afternoon of January 11 last year changed all that.

Sitting in a coffee house close to Bristol Crown Court Liz's steely demeanour masks her inner turmoil following the vicious hammer attack on her son.

In the background Henry watches on like a schoolboy - lost.

Life will never be the same she says - but she is thankful Henry is still alive.

As she sips a cup of coffee her mind recalls the horror that went through her mind when she heard her stricken boy had been attacked on the school playground.

"It was the worst day of my life," says Liz, describing the day Henry was attacked.

"I have never felt like that before. My younger son rang me to tell us what had happened. We jumped in the car and drove down there as quickly as we could. It only took us four minutes.

"There was blood everywhere.

"He was still on the ground and they were just moving him to the ambulance.

"He was conscious but bleeding.

"I went in the ambulance with Henry. I waited at the hospital for six hours. Once they realised his skull was fractured they moved him to the Frenchay hospital.

"They operated the next morning.

"It was bad, you can't imagine how bad it is for something like that to happen and waiting to hear if your son is going to be all riight. It is unbelievable.

"It you saw it in a TV drama you wouldn't believe it."

Liz says she has kept her emotions in check throughout the trial for her family and has tried to keep her younger son Joe out of the public spotlight.

She has stayed away from proceedings in Court 2 for fear of reliving the anguish she went through after Henry was attacked.

Experts attribute Henry's remarkable recovery to the fact that he was fit, healthy and young, but Liz says the aftermath of being repeatedly beaten with a hammer will be with the 16-year-old for the rest of his life.

"He will never achieve what he might have achieved," she said.

"His life after this, we have all had to come to terms with different expectations.

"He could have been killed, physically disabled, or left in a coma, so he is very lucky not to have sustained more serious injuries from seven blows to the head.

"He wanted to go to university and become a civil engineer, but that is looking unlikely.

"He has missed a lot of school. He hasn't got his GCSEs. He has been really badly affected in terms of his concentration and fatigue. He has got a weakness down his left hand side.

"He has difficulties reading, difficulties with his concentration and difficulties multi-tasking."

Henry and his younger brother Joe, 12, have now both changed schools and Liz said the whole family hoped to be able to put the horrific incident behind them soon.