A MOTHER has spoken of her agony after her son was fatally attacked in a park.

Christopher Folkes was walking to his mum Christina Baxter’s home when he was attacked in Queen’s Park, Blackburn, near his home in Shadsworth.

Mrs Baxter said police had told her Mr Folkes, 36, was kicked in the head while unconscious then left for dead.

She said she desperately regretted not picking her son up for his usual Saturday night visit to her home in Delph Close.

Mrs Baxter said: “My arthritis had flared up so I told him that I could not pick him up.

“We spoke at about 9pm on Saturday and he said he was coming over to my house. That was the last time I spoke to him.

“The police said an ambulance was called at 9.31pm.

“The worst thing is that he was on his way to see me. That is difficult to deal with.

“We are feeling such a great loss. It is just so hard to comprehend what has happened to him.

“Chris was so slightly built and wouldn’t have stood a chance.

“The level of violence was obscene.”

Police said Mr Folkes was attacked by three Asian men but detectives do not believe the incident was racially motivated.

Mrs Baxter said: “I don’t think there was racism involved. These are just horrible and nasty people who have got nothing better to do than attack a vulnerable man.

“I think it was just a random attack and I am sure that he did not know the people who attacked him.

“The police have told us that witnesses said that they kicked his head like a football even when he was already unconscious. Who could do a thing like that?

“Not even animals would behave like that.

“The worst thing for us is to be told that there were a lot of witnesses but not one of them rang the police.

“He was left for dead. It was a jogger who found him by the lake and called 999.”

Mr Folkes died in hospital at around 6pm on Sunday.

Mrs Baxter said: “We were at his bedside in hospital and he was unrecognisable. His injuries were almost entirely to his head and it was so badly swollen.

“He was in a coma and his brain had been badly damaged. They took some scans and sent them to the specialists in Preston who said there was nothing they could do.”

She said Mr Baxter was a recovering heroin addict who had been clean for four years and was trying to put his life back together.

Mrs Baxter said her ‘wonderful and kind’ son ‘who would help anybody’ was planning a future working as a computer technician.

And she said he was a timid man who always tried to avoid confrontation.

Mr Baxter leaves his mother, along with siblings, Jason Kolignion, 38, Lisa Baxter, 28 and Rachel Baxter, 26.

She said she believes that he was confronted by the gang in North Road, on his way to his mother’s, and was chased to Queen’s Park where he was attacked.

Mrs Baxter said: “He had so much to live for. He had turned his life around after a very long battle with drugs. He was clean and was looking for training.

“He could fix anything and was very good with phones and computers.

"He built a computer for me and that was the line of business he wanted to go in to.

“He took drugs from a young age but with the support of his family he fought back and was doing well.

"He had a nice flat and was taking his medication. He had got his life back.”