Brutal attack at Ravenside
Paul Gurr doesn't remember the assault by Luke Gorman which put him in a coma - he just knows he lost something he can never get back.
The 39-year-old was left with head fractures and an eye socket so beaten it had to be re-built with metal plates.
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Hide AdLuke Gorman, of Gwyneth Grove, was sentenced at Hove Crown Court having pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent on October 20, 2006.
He was tried as a juvenile and received the maximum sentence - two years detention and training order in a youth offender institute.
Paul, who grew up in Sidley, is meanwhile re-building his life and is coming to terms with what happened, all the time more worried for wife Brenda and son Michael, 11, who dealt with the fear of losing him that night.
"I've had a few tears about it," he told the Observer this week.
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Hide Ad"There are times I get a bit emotional...but I didn't go through the trauma that Michael and Brenda went through, and the rest of my family, because they didn't know if I would recover.
"My injuries were that bad.
"Brenda is going through counselling because of it...I could have died."
As trolley team leader at the supermarket, Paul tried to help when he saw teenagers messing about.
One was inside the trolley and another was pushing as it rolled down to the roundabout in front of KFC and "smashed" into a car.
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Hide Ad"I went over to tell them to stop mucking about," said Paul.
"I just wanted them to say sorry about the car."
He chased them off and remembers one disappeared into the rough track that leads down to the garden centre.
"I turned round and came back. As I came back I was assaulted. And that was Gorman.
"I have no memory at all - my injuries were that serious.
"He hit me and knocked me out.
"He smashed my face in while I was lying on the ground with his fist or boot. I was knocked out unconscious."
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Hide AdPaul was found further up the car park, near Ocean Bowling, having managed to make his way there, and was taken to the Conquest where his family waited to see if he would be stabilised.
"I was bleeding on the brain - so they tell me. They didn't know the extent of my injuries until I actually woke up and came out of the coma.
"I only have memory of the last couple of days. Five days later my wife Brenda gave birth and I was not there."
Paul had three months off work to recover, but even now is working day rather than evening shifts because Brenda is worried for his safety.
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Hide AdHe is a former pupil of King Offa and Bexhill High school, whose family still live in Pebsham, although he and Brenda moved to St Leonards and are close to the Tesco store at Hollington, with Michael a pupil at William Parker.