The mum of a man who died 15 years after he was stabbed in the neck in an "unprovoked and terrible attack" has issued a heartfelt plea for witnesses to come forward.

RAC inspector Christopher Linton died aged 40 at Fairfield General Hospital on May 30 last year after he was admitted a few days before.

His death resulted from medical complications believed to be directly linked to an assault against him 15 years ago and from which he never fully recovered.

The attack took place in the early hours of the morning on Saturday, October 4, 2008, when Chris left the Derby Arms pub on Bolton Street in Bury.

While walking along Bolton Road he met and got talking to two women near the Blockbuster video store and Raja’s Indian Takeaway.

The two women then got into a black car with two men. But as Chris continued to speak to the women he was stabbed in the neck by one of the men.

Chris sustained life-threatening injuries from this attack but managed to make his way back to the Derby Arms to seek help from the occupants who gave him first aid and called an ambulance.

Chris was then taken to hospital where he was given lifesaving treatment.

Two men were later arrested by Bury CID but no-one was charged.

Following his death, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) launched a murder investigation.

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And now, Chris' mum Tracey McLeod is urging people with information to come forward for the family to "get some closure from the grief we are going through".

She said: “My son Christopher, who liked to go by the name of Chris, lost his life on May 30, 2023 at Fairfield hospital when he was just 40 years old. Chris was kind-hearted and always put others before himself.

“He had a heart of gold, he was funny, loving, and most of all caring, and he had a fantastic personality.

“Chris touched the heart strings of everyone who met him: family, friends, colleagues, and strangers.

“Chris had a son he loved so very much but now his son has lost his father.

“Chris was a son, grandson, nephew, brother, uncle, father and brother-in-law.

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“His greatest achievement was becoming an RAC inspector, which he was very proud of and his family was incredibly proud of him.

“Words cannot describe the pain and trauma that Chris’s death has had on our family.

“The pain and sadness is with us all day and night and it doesn’t go away.

“I am pleading as a mother for help from the public. Please help us as a family get some closure from the grief we are going through.

“Chris was brutally stabbed in the neck 15 years ago, and the people involved left my son for dead. This happened at the back of Blockbusters on Bolton Road.

“Please come forward with any information to help a devastated family and help my son Chris to rest in peace.”

DI Alex Wilkinson, of GMP's major incident team, added: “Chris was an innocent victim of an unprovoked and terrible attack that tragically resulted in his death.

“Although Chris passed away years after the incident took place, this has not lessened the impact on his family who have had to watch the person they love pass away from an act of senseless violence.

“Chris’s family remain at the forefront of this investigation, and we will continue supporting them with specialist officers.

"Despite the passage of time between Chris’s death and the attack on him, the investigation team remains determined to identify the person or persons responsible and bring them to justice.

“I would like to appeal to anyone with any information about the assault to do the right thing and contact police.

“The information you have could be the piece we need to solve this investigation and finally bring some closure to a grieving family.”