A WAR hero suffered a broken nose in an unprovoked attack by two “hoodies”.
Walter Tittle, 71, was jumped by two teenagers in an alleyway just 25 yards from his home in Clifton Crescent, Frodsham, as he returned from a game of dominoes with pals last Friday evening.
He tried to defend himself but was incapacitated when one of them kicked him hard in the groin.
The grandfather-of-three says he will be travelling by taxi at night in future but is determined the incident will not stop him in his tracks.
Mr Tittle, who served in Malaya in the Second World War, said: “I had been down the Conservative club having a game of dominoes with mates and I left the club about 10.30pm.
“I was walking along Ship Street with a mate and he left me at the bottom of the alleyway, I was three- quarters of the way up when I heard “Hey you!”.
“The next thing they were kicking the hell out of me.”
Mr Tittle said there was no obvious motivation for the assault with nothing stolen.
While on the floor, he grabbed one of the perpetrator’s legs but the accomplice then kicked him in the groin.
The victim managed to struggle home where his wife Marie went “berserk” about what had happened. She had always warned him about not walking up the alleyway but until last Friday he had done so without incident for 46 years.
“She doesn’t go out at night. She hasn’t done for a couple of years,” he said.
The next day his daughter Tracy, from Helsby, rang police who insisted Mr Tittle visit Halton Hospital where it was discovered he had suffered a fractured nose in addition to the cut on his nose and general bruising.
“If I sit in a chair for a long time I stiffen up,” said Mr Tittle. “I’ll be all right. I will survive. It will take more than them little gets to put me down.”
A former long distance lorry driver, today Mr Tittle works 16 hours a week for Frodsham Town Council cutting the grass at Tarvin Road Cemetery.
Mr Tittle says Frodsham has “gone worse” in the past six months in terms of anti-social behaviour with marauding gangs of youths numbering 20 or 30-strong, although he is keen to stress most young people are “all right”.
He believes many of the troublemakers are fuelled with alcohol.
The suspects are described as aged about 14-16 years old and were wearing hooded tops. Mr Tittle believes they had local accents.
PC Terry Cawley, who is investigating the case, said reports of anti- social behaviour in Frodsham had fallen over the past six months but he understood the negative perception given there were gangs of young people “still hanging around”.
“Lots of them are not really doing anything,” he said.
Anyone with information about the attack is asked to call PC Cawley on 0845 458 0000 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
