Soldier dies week after club attack

A soldier died on Tuesday, a week after being attacked outside a club as he celebrated his homecoming from Afghanistan.

David Grout who has died after he was attacked in Eston Teesside David Grout, who has died after he was attacked in Eston, Teesside [PA]

David Grout, 22, had been enjoying a low-key homecoming celebration with his parents and looking forward to a reunion with his wife and child when two men confronted him outside the Eston Institute Club in Teesside last Tuesday.

A 19-year-old from the Eston area of Middlesbrough who handed himself in to Cleveland Police was arrested in connection with the incident and has been released on bail.

A Cleveland Police spokesman said the soldier died shortly before lunch time. He had been in a critical condition at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Acting Detective Chief Inspector Dave Mead, for Cleveland Police, said: "Our thoughts are with his family, Kerry his wife and Harley his son at this sad time."

The soldier, who served with the 204 Signals Regiment and is based at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire, was taken to hospital where he was put into an induced coma to stabilise his condition.

The soldier's father Colin Grout, 53, spoke last week of the surgeon's battle to save his son.

He told the Evening Gazette in Middlesbrough: "When he first went in he was thrashing around and he was sick and he only had a small bleed at first. He was taken up to neurosurgery and that's when he went downhill and they whipped him off to surgery.

"He had four hours of surgery. They had to take a big piece of bone out of the left side of his head and took a blood clot out to release the pressure on the brain.

"They then had to stop the bleeding. He's been kept unconscious since then."

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