Kind-hearted Harry dies (From Stroud News and Journal)

Kind-hearted Harry dies

TIRELESS charity campaigner Harry Woods has died at the age of 71 - just nine months after being attacked by two teenage girls near his Stroud home.

The grandfather died at the weekend at his house on the Paganhill Estate, where he lived for 40 years.

Neighbour Malcolm Woodward, 50, knew Harry all his life and is devastated.

"He was like a father to me - he bought me up", he said.

"One of the last things Harry did was go into Stroud on Friday and buy Easter eggs for my four children.

"In my opinion he would still be here today if it wasn't for the attack, he had another 20 years in him at least."

Keith Biddles, a friend of Mr Woods' and a fellow member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of the Buffaloes, said he was a strong willed and genuine man.

"I knew Harry for 20 years," he said.

"He had a good heart and was well liked in the community but after the attack he was not his normal vibrant self."

A post-mortem is being carried out to ascertain the cause of death. Mr Woods was badly beaten by two 14-year-old girls last July after he refused one of them a cigarette.

He ended up in intensive care at Cheltenham General Hospital having suffered serious chest and head injuries.

When the girls appeared in court in February Ian Halliday, prosecuting, said: "His health is currently so precarious that even going through the details of the incident again with a doctor could be detrimental to his condition.

"He will not answer the door and is barely capable of being left on his own in his own house."

His attackers, one from Stroud and the other from Bedminster, Bristol have pleaded guilty to the alcohol-fuelled assault and will be sentenced on April 20.