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Attacked dad's brain injury fear
DESPERATE relatives of a former soldier left hospitalised with brain injuries in a vicious assault - just weeks after becoming a dad - are urgently appealing for help to trace his attacker.
Lee Truswell was repeatedly punched in the head by a reveller outside Escapade club on Cavendish Street, Chesterfield, at about 11.30pm on Saturday following an altercation inside the nightspot a short time earlier.
The 30-year-old, who served his country in Afghanistan and Iraq, also banged his head after hitting the floor before the attacker fled.
Now Lee's horrified fianc and family, of Chesterfield, are calling for witnesses and those with information to come forward as they wait to learn whether he will sustain permanent damage.
"When I heard Lee had been attacked, I felt sick", said his fianc Kate Trigg, who gave birth to their first child Callum five weeks ago.
"At hospital when I saw him I started panicking - he could have died.
"I want any witnesses to please come forward because Lee has a family he loves to bits."
Lee was celebrating his cousin's stag do on a rare night out since the birth of Callum, who was in special care for a month after the birth.
The former Henry Fanshawe School pupil was taken to Chesterfield Royal Hospital with swelling and bleeding on the brain then transferred to Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition.
Close friend Jason Shepherd, the partner of Lee's sister Nicolette Truswell, was there on the night and said the unprovoked attack came from behind.
"I thought he was dead because there was such a lot of blood", he added.
"Lee's ears were bleeding and his eyes were wide open.
"We had to persuade him to come that night, he kept saying he should be home with his baby son - the man who did this shouldn't be walking free."
Lee, who recently left The 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment after eight years, was adjusting to civilian life and settling down with a new job in Chesterfield, said his dad Richard.
Mr Truswell added: "We're all traumatised.
"As well as the serious injuries Lee's suffered from this apparently unprovoked attack, which has left him hospitalised and unable to support his family, it has robbed him of these early few weeks with his son which I knew he was looking forward to."
Lee's sister Nicolette added: "We don't want anybody else's family to have to feel like this, at the minute we don't even know how Lee is going to be.
"It's not like a broken leg where it heals in six weeks - this could be life-changing."
Police say the attacker left the scene on Saturday with a woman in a white or cream dress and would like to speak with her as well as any witnesses or those with information.
In a separate incident two men were arrested and bailed after an 18-year-old man was found lying unconscious on Knifesmithgate, Chesterfield, with a serious head injury at 3am on Friday.
Witnesses or anyone with information to either assault should call 0345 123 33 33.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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