A Royal Navy veteran was battered by a vicious gang of thugs who stole his shopping as he walked home from a supermaret.
Pensioner Patrick Murphy was targeted by the cowardly bike gang after he had moved aside to let them pass on their bicycles.
The 77-year-old, who didn't initially report the crime to "avoid making a fuss", said the callous teenagers laughed as they cycled away from the scene with his goods from Aldi.
The grandfather-of-four, from Basingstoke, Hants, has been left with a badly bruised face and says he is now too afraid to venture out of his house at night, reports the Daily Star.
And he said he would love to ask his attackers: "Are you proud of yourselves, for attacking a pensioner?"
Mr Murphy had gone shopping in South Ham last Saturday evening after watching the Ashes cricket. As he returned home, the thugs struck.
He said: "I heard a cyclist coming so I went to move out of the way then suddenly it was 'whack' 'whack' 'whack' around the head.
“Next thing I was on the floor and my shopping had gone."
He was left on the ground in pain while the thugs cycled off "laughing and shouting" with his shopping.
With no one else around, Mr Murphy picked himself up and took himself home. He said he was initially in shock and didn't call the police because he "didn't want to cause any bother”.
On Sunday, he spent the day with a bag of frozen peas on his face. And because his groceries had been robbed, he had no fresh food in.
Mr Murphy only reported the sickening crime two days later after a friend urged him to.
"I didn't want to cause a fuss," he said.
It was a journey Mr Murphy had made many times before but one he said he won't be repeating from now on after dark.
"I won't be doing that again. It has made me think twice. I don't go out in the dark normally but I definitely won't be now," he said.
The former serviceman, who was in the Navy for 11 years, praised the police who arrived quickly on the Monday morning and took him straight to hospital.
"I had a police officer either side of me, it was like having bodyguards," he joked.
When news of the attack became public kind-hearted people from his community began fundraising money to pay for Patrick's stolen shopping. To date they have raised more than £900.
But because the retired seaman and former oil rig diver isn't on any social media sites – he had no idea until a friend told him.
Mr Murphy – whose face is still heavily bruised – said he was "gobsmacked".
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