A SOLDIER with family ties to Colchester has died in hospital after being assaulted just hours after returning from Afghanistan.

Signalman David Grout had been the victim of an unprovoked attack outside a social club in Eston, near Middlesbrough.

The 22-year-old suffered a serious head injury and was taken to hospital, where he was put into an induced coma, but died on Tuesday lunchtime.

His wife Kerry and their 20-month-old son Harley were visiting her parents in Colchester when they heard of the attack last Tuesday, and flew back to be at his bedside.