Grandad 'left in a pool of blood' after vicious Hayling Island attack

Ross Tyrrell was left with a fractured cheek and deep gashes to his face and head after being knocked unconscious during the bloody assault in Sea Front, Hayling Island, on Saturday evening.

The 63-year-old also suffered a bleed on the brain and spent four days in Queen Alexandra Hospital recovering from the beating.

Now speaking out for the first time, the grandfather-of-four has revealed he only moved to Hayling Island to recover after a nightmare bout of Covid-19, in April 2020, almost killed him.

The retired HGV driver, formerly of Egham, Surrey, said: ‘I had pneumonia, I had sepsis – I died twice from cardiac arrests. I shouldn’t be alive.

‘I was paralysed from the neck down and had to learn to walk again. I lost three stone in hospital and I looked like Skeletor… It was like I was in purgatory all that time.’

Ross spent 47 days in intensive care at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey and six weeks in a coma.

Ross’s wife of 46 years, Jane, added: ‘The doctors called him a miracle. They wanted to switch his life-support off. But he managed to wake up.’

After waking up, he spent a further six months in rehabilitation and still struggles to walk or hold things, two years after his illness.

He said he moved to Hayling Island last year to ‘relax and recover’ but added that dream had now been shattered since his attack, which has set his health back ‘months’.

‘We came down here to retire for my health, I didn’t come here to get attacked by some toerags,’ he added.

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As previously reported, the assault happened shortly before 10.30pm and saw a large crowd of youths gather outside Ross’s home in Sea Front.

Jane said the pair had faced months of abuse at the hands of youths, who had thrown sticks at their home, verbally abused them and vandalised their bins.

Speaking of the moment she saw her beloved husband ‘lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood,’ Jane said: ‘I thought he was dead. There was so much blood.

‘It was horrendous. Afterwards I couldn’t sleep. I was looking out my window, fearful.’

Ross said his confidence had been knocked following the attack and added: ‘I don’t remember much about the attack, getting hit or falling down. I only remember waking up on the floor and seeing a copper looking down at me.’

Jane added the couple had been traumatised by the incident and said: ‘I’ve had a war with Covid for two years and almost watched my husband die.

‘Now we've had this. All we wanted to do was move to Hayling Island and relax. But we can’t.

‘It’s all been so emotional. I’m now living in fear and scared of what could happen next.’

News of the attack was shared widely on social media. Jane added she wished to thank everyone ‘for their kindness’.

A 17-year-old was arrested on suspicion of GBH but has been released on bail pending further enquiries until June 20.

Hampshire police has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct for its response to the incident.