Bridegroom Shaun Capon will be walking gingerly down the aisle this Saturday after being beaten up by a gang just days before the event.

He is going ahead with wedding plans despite being covered in cuts and bruises from two beatings by the same gang after his stag night in Brighton.

The 29-year-old builder suffered a catalogue of injuries including whiplash, a cut to his head which needed stitches, a gash on his left hand, bruised ribs, a cut on his back and swelling on his thigh, face and both hands.

Shaun, who lives with his fiancee and their baby son in the town centre, was treated at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

His bride-to-be, Bridie Stenning, a 19-year-old hotel worker, was in floods of tears when she first saw Shaun's battered face. "I thought he was dead. I was devastated.

"He was paralysed for an hour but thankfully his injuries have got a bit better since.

"We decided nothing was going to spoil our wedding day, even if it meant Shaun arriving in a wheelchair."

Shaun said he was determined to go ahead with the ceremony at Brighton's parish church of St Nicholas in Dyke Road.

He added: "There's no way this is going to stop me."

Bridie confessed: "I love him just as much, bruises or no bruises. Anyway, some reckon his injuries make him look more rugged.

"I just hope I can get the wedding ring on his swollen finger during the ceremony."

Bridie's father, 39-year-old lorry driver Jerry Stenning, suffered two black eyes when he tried to save Shaun from the second beating.

Police today were trying to trace the offenders, three black men, who pounced first in Cannon Place and later outside the Metropole Hotel in King's Road.

Shaun was repeatedly hit with what looked like a police baton.

Police said the assaults, in the early hours of Sunday, were unprovoked and they are appealing for witnesses.

Shaun managed to fight back at one stage and one offender is thought to be nursing a severely bruised face.

The attacker is in his early 20s, 6ft and wore a red sports top carrying the number one. His two accomplices are also in their 20s and 6ft. One wore a grey top.

Anyone with information should contact Detective Constable Simon Cramp on 0845 6070999.