Thug did all this damage to steal £34

Photo: Chris Sunderland

Bruised and battered . . . Mr Kibblewhite’s injuries two days after the attack.

A 58-YEAR-OLD man on his way home from church ended up in hospital after he was savagely beaten for just £34 yards from his home.

Fred Kibblewhite was subjected to a vicious attack in the stairwell of the block of flats where he lives in Henshaw Street, Oldham, and was left with his jaw broken in three places.

He is now too frightened to return home and is staying with his sister after the ordeal at 9.30pm on Saturday.

Mr Kibblewhite called home after a meeting at St Patrick’s Church, Oldham. He intended to go on to the White House pub, Oldham Edge for a quiz night, but never made it.

He passed a man talking on a mobile outside the flats. As Mr Kibblewhite went through the front security door, the man followed and started a conversation, but then attacked Mr Kibblewhite with his mobile phone

Police told Mr Kibblewhite’s distressed sister, Marie Hargreaves, of Hathershaw, that a photograph of her injured brother, taken immediately after the attack was too horrific to release to the press.

She said: “The lad followed Freddy through the security door then all hell broke loose.

“He tried to gouge his eyes out with a mobile phone, and left him with three fractures to his jaw. His face is all bruised, his eyes are completely closed. He is very very upset and he can hardly walk.

“The lad robbed him of £30. I would have given him the £30 to leave him alone.”

Mr Kibblewhite said: “As I got to the door the youth came off his phone and said, ‘Women, they are all the same aren’t they, mate,’ and shook my hand.

“He followed me through the door and I thought he was visiting someone, then he stabbed his phone into my eye.

“He smashed me around the head with the phone, hit my kidneys and my legs, and when he had gone I got to my dwelling and phoned the police.

“I didn’t realise the extent of my injuries, but they called an ambulance which took me to the Royal Oldham Hospital at about 10pm and they didn’t finish treating me until 3am.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with my legs, I can’t walk without a stick, and I didn’t have one before.”

He added: “I am frightened of going home, I feel terrible, and I keep forgetting things.”

The man police are looking for is described as white, aged 20 to 25, 5ft 5in tall and slim. He had dark hair cut short at the sides and back, was clean shaven and wore dark jeans and a dark T-shirt with a white motif on the front.

Det-Con Andy Parkin, of Oldham CID, said the attacker was clearly dangerous and needed to be caught.

He said Mr Kibblewhite was subjected to an unprovoked violent and sustained attack for a paltry sum of money.

Anyone with information should contact the police on 0161-856 9577 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800-555 111.