PENSIONER Albert Hindle was kicked and beaten in his own home by youths who escaped with nothing more than a packet of tobacco.

The three young thugs left him unconscious after beating him to a pulp.

Albert, who is 63, was attacked when he answered his front door in Hemmingway Place, Nelson.

They knocked him to the ground and left him with a broken cheek-bone, fractured ribs and badly bruised all over.

And as he lay on the floor his uninvited guests helped themselves to one of Albert's few pleasures... his tobacco.

Said Albert: "I've no idea why they should have come here. I've nothing to take.

"There were three of them, all about 16 year old.

"They punched me and kicked me and they made a real mess."

When he came round from his ordeal Albert dragged himself next door to get help from his neighbours Jesse and Edith Constable and they rang for an ambulance.

Initially, Albert was taken to Burnley General but he was later transferred for specialist treatment to Blackburn Royal Infirmary.

He said: "Mrs and Mrs Constable have been very good. I couldn't have managed without them. The doctors and the nurses looked after me very well and I would like to thank them all very much for looking after me."

Albert has been out of a job since being made redundant in 1987 from Victory V where he was a forklift truck driver and security guard. Before then he was the projectionist at the Palace Cinema.

ZDo you think our towns are becoming more violent? What can we do to stop the rot? Write to Citizen Postbag at 20 Keirby Walk, Burnley with your views.

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