A BIDEFORD man is in a coma with serious head injuries after he was attacked in the town centre in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Steven Cloak, known locally as Cloaky, suffered a skull fracture and his family have been told he has brain damage as a result of the serious assault which happened in Pitt Lane in Bideford at about 1.45am.

Steven, 26, was taken to North Devon District Hospital and immediately transferred to intensive care at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth by the Chivenor search and rescue crew.

His mum Margaret and stepdad Stephen Hill from Northam, alongside his sister and lifelong friend are at his bedside.

Mr Hill said: "Steven is in an induced sleep in intensive care.

"It has been an emotional rollercoaster. One minute there is a bit of hope and the next it is dashed. It is a waiting game.

"Until we see a response from Steven we are in limbo.

"The shock is going but the reality is setting in. We have to resign ourselves to the fact that Steven is going to be ill for a long time to come. He has been brain damaged.

"He has taken a serious blow to the head and there is a lot of swelling. The medics had to put in a tap to reduce the fluid around the brain."

He added: "Both Margaret and I are both full of mixed emotions. This was a totally mindless attack."

Mr Hill said Steven had been out to a friend's house in East-the-Water to play cards and have a couple of beers as he does regularly.

He said: "They are old school friends and usually meet up on a Friday.

"He has a tremendous amount of friends and there has been a lot of support.

"As far as we know Steven had left his friend's house, walked into town and picked up a takeaway and was walking home to eat it when he was attacked."

Detective Inspector Dave Atkinson said: "Steven is in a critical but stable condition.

"Police and ambulance crews found him unconscious in Pitt Lane in the early hours of Saturday morning.

"We are appealing to anyone who may have seen the victim or a group of youths in the town centre of Bideford between 11pm on Friday, February 26 and 1.30am the following day.

"We are also asking anyone who was driving or walking in the Mill Street, Bridgeland Street, North Road and Pitt Lane area who may have seen something between 1.30am and 1.50am on Saturday, February 27 to contact us."

A 16-year-old man was arrested following the attack and a second 16-year-old man was arrested later on that day.

Both have been released on police bail until April 26.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact police on 08452 777444 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 quoting reference number CD10321.

Source: www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk

Prog rock/metal icons DREAM THEATER will spend their summer supporting IRON MAIDEN on the band's month-long tour of major U.S. and Canadian markets. The tour launches on June 9 and runs through July 20, and includes a stop at the storied Madison Square Garden in New York City, marking the first time in a lengthy and respected career that DREAM THEATER will have played the world's most famous arena. This tour will mark another milestone in DREAM THEATER's history, which continues to expand and evolve, twenty-five years deep.

Of touring with IRON MAIDEN in North America, DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy said, "It is a bit of a dream come true for us.

"After 25 years together, at this stage in our career, there's honestly only three bands DREAM THEATER would consider opening for and MAIDEN is one of them.

"It is an absolute honor.

"Through the years, we've done many one-off shows with MAIDEN and they've almost all been overseas. It is very exciting to finally be doing a full tour with them and on our side of the pond, no less.

"These are gonna be amazing shows that the fans won't want to miss.

"Up the fucking irons!”

NIGHTWISH singer Anette Olzon has issued the following update:

"I have held a little secret for you all for some time now, but today I feel I want to share it with you all. As you all know, I am very private and don't want to share to much about my personal life, but due to some speculations and since I am so happy I have decided to tell my secret:

Last autumn in the middle of my demo recordings of my solo album, I started to feel very, very tired and also nauseated. I took a pregnancy test and guess if me and my bf was really surprised to see that I had gotten pregnant. Since I had decided to not have any more children than my son, it was totally not planned, but after the very first shock, it felt really, really good.

Now I have almost done half the pregnancy and I am feeling extremely good, but its due to this I decided to not do the solo this year. I am sure you all can understand this decision better now and I do promise to release the songs at another time."