Freeman faces a minimum five-year term after pleading guilty in September last year to the manufacture of a commercial quantity – 19.2 kilograms – of ecstasy.

During a sentencing hearing in the Downing Centre District Court yesterday, Freeman’s mother Georgina Freeman said her son was bashed with a can of tuna in jail during his time on remand.

She said the assault occurred earlier this year, about the same time someone made posts about her son on a Facebook page.

“They hit him over the head with a tuna can and split his head open,” Mrs Freeman said of the assault.

“I saw Adam and I saw the injury.”

The court heard that the tuna tin attack had left Freeman with a 10cm laceration.

However, when asked by Corrective Services officers whether he needed help, Freeman had allegedly told them he was fine and did not need to go to hospital.

Freeman fled Australia but was extradited in August 2011 after he surrendered to the Australian embassy in Thailand.

He flew to Bangkok on December 16, 2010, a day after two co-accused were arrested near Tamworth.

Mrs Freeman told the court yesterday that her son’s short stint in a Thai jail had been “devastating”.

She said this, combined with the fear of being bashed again in jail, had already amounted to “real punishment”.

Judge Hasler fixed a total sentence of seven years and eight months.