DOCTORS fear Peter Thorne may never regain the sight in one eye after a vicious attack by stone-throwing teenagers in Chippenham left him half blind.

His wife Janet fears his memory could also have been affected and believes it will be a long time before he recovers from the emotional impact of the attack.

It has taken Mr Thorne, of Trenchard Close, a normally quiet residential street, two weeks before he could speak openly about the horrific attack on October 22, which lost him the sight in his left eye and shattered his cheek and eye socket.

Mr Thorne, 49, had just returned home from a shopping trip when he overheard two youths talking about throwing a stone through his elderly neighbour's window.

"They produced a stone and it was quite a large one and threw it at the neighbour's house," he said.

Mr Thorne asked one of the teenagers where he came from. He then told him to go back and throw stones at his own neighbours.

"As I did this I turned round to my right hand side. When I went back to face him, something hit me. That's all I really know about it."

He said the first thing he knew he was on the pavement in a pool of his own blood.

"I had a terrible pain going through my head. I just hoped someone would find me."

Mr Thorne's left eye socket was just a mass of shattered bone.

He was eventually found by a neighbour and taken to the Royal United Hospital in Bath by ambulance.

Initially, the damage to his eye wasn't thought to be serious, but after he was seen by a top eye specialist, Mr Thorne was rushed into theatre at 2am.

"They tried to save the eye," said Mr Thorne.

"Not to have an eye that works, but something that looks like an eye.

"They sewed up the back and did a marvellous job."

Mr Thorne had a second operation on the eye's iris at Cheltenham Hospital last weekend.

"They have sewn it up, so to all intents and purposes it looks like I have an eye."

But Mr Thorne has no sight in this eye and doctors are doubtful he will ever regain it.

He is still in a serious state of shock and disbelief. Mrs Thorne, 55, believes the gravity of the situation has not yet hit him .

"I don't feel anything towards the boys who did this," he said.

"I just don't know why anyone would do this and I am lost for words."

He said he would be unlikely to step in to try and prevent a similar incident in the future. "At the moment I would say I wouldn't."

He now faces further operations to rebuild the eye and specialists will do their best to save his sight. Plastic surgeons plan to take a bone graft from his hip to rebuild the left side of his face.

It will probably mean he will have to give up his job.

Mrs Thorne said: "They haven't given us any hope. If he gets his sight back it will probably only be some, but they can't make any guarantees.

"We think his memory's been affected too. We're hoping it is just the shock and not a long-term thing."

It is the second time Mr Thorne has encountered violence this year.

He was threatened by a knife-wielding man, who has since been caught by police, while working as a cashier at The Pheasant Garage in Bath Road on September 30.

Police are urging anyone with any information about the two teenagers in the latest incident to contact them on (01249) 654455.

The youths are described as being between 14 and 18. One has fair hair and the other brown hair.