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Mugging victim Alan Barnes says he will never forgive the thug who attacked him outside his home.

But the frail pensioner still hopes troubled Richard Gatiss can turn his life around in jail.

The 25-year-old will be sentenced on Thursday for carrying out an attack that shocked the nation.

Disabled Alan, who has suffered from height and growth problems since birth, was targeted as he moved his wheelie bin outside his Gateshead bungalow in January.

Gatiss knocked the 67-year-old to the ground, searched his pockets for cash then fled empty handed.

The attack left Alan, who is just 4ft 6ins tall, with a broken collar bone.

And today as he waits to find out his attacker’s fate, the victim has told the Chronicle that the drug addict deserves to be punished.

Alan said: “I don’t forgive him because he shouldn’t have done it in the first place.

“It would be in his own interests to use this opportunity to change for the better. I hope if he goes to jail he will get some help in there.

“He’s only 25, he’s got plenty of time to change his life still. I just hope he gets his life turned around. That would be a happy ending.”

Gatiss, of Split Crow Road in Gateshead, was arrested two weeks after the attack.

He admitted assault with intent to rob at Newcastle Crown Court.

The legal high user has spent the last two months remanded in custody at Durham Prison where he is being kept in segregation for his own safety.

“He needs a jail sentence because you can’t just get away with doing things like that and I don’t want him to do anything worse to someone else,” Alan said.

“I do want him to go to jail for a couple of years, or whatever the court thinks is necessary.

Alan was born with sight and growth problems after his mum contracted German measles when she was pregnant.

Yet he had always managed to live independently and was a well familiar figure in Low Fell before the attack. And the committed church-goer was known to take long walks around the local area.

Local beautician Katie Cutler set up an online fundraising site to help Alan after reading the Chronicle’s story about the attack, in which Alan revealed he was too afraid to return to his home.

And generous well-wishers donated a staggering £330,000 in a matter of weeks.

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“My life has changed a lot since this happened. I’m buying a house now with half of the money,” Alan added.

“It’s in Low Fell and it has two bedrooms. I didn’t want to buy anything too big.

“I just wanted somewhere near the shops, the bank and the church so I can get my independence back and cut down on what I ask my family to do. And I feel safe in this house.

“It was a nasty thing that happened, but it has had a positive effect.

“I have been for a walk round where my sister lives by myself for the first time now and it has been nice to just get back to what I was doing.

“I can use my arm a lot more than I could now as well. It’s not 100% but it’s getting there.”