A GRANDFATHER was savagely attacked by a group of young thugs who mocked him about his height before hitting him and then laughing as they walked away.

Derek Bishop, who is 4ft 10in, was walking home from the pub with his wife in Ambleside Avenue, Peacehaven, when he was approached by a gang of youths who swore at him and called him short.

He said “yes I am” and kept walking but one of the group, aged around 18, punched him, making him fall back and hit his head on the pavement.

The 63-year-old suffered a fractured jaw and a gashed head in the attack in the early hours of Saturday.

Derek’s wife Alison said: “I didn’t know what to do when it happened. I honestly thought he was dead because he was just laying on the floor out cold until the ambulance services arrived.

“I couldn’t even use my phone because I was in such shock. I just waved down a car and the couple in it got out and helped me call emergency services.

“We had just said goodbye to one of our friends before it happened so I tried to get hold of him but couldn’t.”

The gang walked off laughing after the attack.

The couple live in Springfield Avenue, a ten-minute walk from where the incident happened.

Derek was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton for treatment but was moved to East Grinstead’s Queen Victoria, where he had two metal plates put in to support his jaw.

Alison said he was a “happy, funny and loveable” man who did not look for trouble.

Alison, 53, said: “He’s 63 years old and he isn’t very fit now. He has struggled a bit with his health recently. Of course he wouldn’t go out looking for a fight. We were just on our way home after a night out with our friends.”

Alison described Derek as the “link that holds the family together”.

The attack happened at about 1.30am on Saturday at the junction of Ambleside Avenue and St Peter’s Avenue.

The punch fractured Derek’s jaw and made him fall to the ground, hitting his head, which subsequently left him unconscious. He has a gash on the back of his head from the fall.

Derek’s son Eliot had big plans for the weekend. He said: “I was planning to have a barbecue on Father’s Day and then heard about what happened.

“Me and my two sisters went ahead with the barbecue and raised a glass in his honour, as he couldn’t be there with us.”

Eliot, 32, was distraught about what happened and wants the culprits caught as soon as possible.

He said: “I am sickened by it. I really want to find out who did it so that we can get justice for what happened.”

The attacker was white, tall and muscular with light brown hair and was wearing all black clothing.

A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “Police are appealing for witnesses to an unprovoked attack on a man in Peacehaven.

“At about 1.45am on Saturday, a man and a woman were walking north in Ambleside Avenue when they were approached by a group of youths at the junction with St Peters Avenue.

“Without warning, the man, who is 63 and from the local area, was punched to the face. This caused him to fall and hit his head on the road and he was taken to hospital.”

Witnesses are urged to contact police online at sussex.police.uk/appealresponse quoting serial 142 of June 17.