A GRIEVING widow today told of how her life had been torn apart after her husband died from head injuries following an alleged attack.

Gail Bibby, 46, of Stopes Brow, Lower Darwen, fought back tears as she talked about her "devoted, kind and one-in-a-million" husband.

Martin Bibby, 47, was found slumped unconscious in Cardwell Place, Blackburn, at 1.20am on Sunday, after a work night out.

A 33-year-old work colleague, of Brookway, Waterloo, Blackburn, has since been charged with manslaughter.

Gail, with the the couple's only child, Martin, 27, at her side, told how her husband was typically reluctant to join work colleagues from Blackburn horticulturists Botanical Interiors on the night out in Blackburn town centre which ended in his death. She said he preferred to stay at home rather than go without her and even phoned her two hours before he was found injured saying he wanted to come home.

She said he stayed out last Saturday night because he did not want to lose face with his friends.

Police and a paramedic tried to revive him after he was spotted by a passing motorist and managed to restart his heart in the ambulance on the way to Blackburn Royal Infirmary. Martin was placed in intensive care, but died later that morning. The post mortem examination found he died of serious head injuries and police said he had appeared to have been seriously assaulted.

Gail made a passionate appeal for witnesses to come forward and said: "We need to know everything that happened. We are not coming to terms with it. It is still unbelievable. It has torn our lives apart.

"The last time I saw him I was at the door with him, waiting for his lift. He didn't want to go out without me. We were inseparable. Then he rang me at half-past ten to ask me to tape the football. He was a bit fed up because he wanted to come home.

"He was a home-loving man and loved his family. He didn't go out much. He preferred we went out as a couple or stayed in. It was very seldom that he went out -- only family functions or Christmas dos.

"He would go out of his way to help people. He was a one in a million."

Martin, who has a brother and sister who live in Blackburn, left St. Bede's RC High School, Livesey Branch Road, when it was called St. Edmund Arrowsmith, and became a plumber. But he spent much of his working life as a machine operator.

For the past four or five months he had been a gardener for Botanical Interiors, in Phillips Road, Whitebirk.

Gail said of her husband of 28 years: "He loved the gardening and if he could have done that job seven days a week he would have. He also liked Grand Prix and football. He liked reading about history. He taught himself through books, but his reading tailed off a bit because of his gardening. That took over his life."

Witnesses are asked to call Blackburn police on 01254 51212 with information about the incident.