Joseph Isaacs sentenced to 20 years for the attempted murder of war veteran Jim Booth

Joseph Isaacs hit D-Day veteran Jim Booth six times in the head with a claw hammer Credit: Avon and Somerset Police

The man who tried to kill D-Day war veteran Jim Booth has been sentenced to 20 years for attempted murder.

Joseph Isaacs, 40, launched the vicious assault on the 96-year-old at his home in Taunton, Somerset, when he became enraged after having his offer of cheap building work turned down.

The illiterate, bogus builder shouted “money money money” as he repeatedly hit a the great-grandfather over the head with a claw hammer on November 22 last year.

Royal Navy veteran Mr Booth tried to escape but was left with multiple skull fractures and lacerations to his head, hands and arms.

During the war Mr Booth joined the Combined Operations Pilotage and Reconnaissance Parties (COPP) and trained for covert beach explorations at a wartime military base set up on Hayling Island in Hampshire in 1943.

Mr Booth became a submarine pilot for the X-craft, tiny submarines that waited on the seabed for days at a time, at the age of 23.

Mr Booth was later awarded a Croix de Guerre military medal by the French for his gallantry.