THE daughter of a peacemaker in a critical condition after he was knocked out in a mass brawl hopes he recovers in time to walk her down the aisle next month.

Gary, from Somerset, had been trying to break up a fight involving around 15 people after enjoying his future son-in-law's stag do in Manchester.

His daughter has made an emotional plea to help bring her father's attacker to justice following the incident in Manchester city centre in the early hours of Saturday.

Police were called to reports of fighting outside The Printworks venue near Dantzic Street and Thornily Brow shortly before 2am.

They discovered Gary, 58, with a serious injury and he was rushed to hospital, along with a second man in his 20s, who was treated for bruising and cuts.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said Gary and his group were trying to calm things down when he was punched in the face and knocked unconscious after banging his head on the ground. Despite emergency surgery he has still not woken up.

Gary's daughter, Amie, who is due to get married in four weeks, has been left devastated by the assault.

Somerset County Gazette:

Gary at the graduation of his daughter, Amie

She said: "This doesn’t feel real. My dad is the funniest and hardest working man you could ever meet and we are struggling to come to terms with what happened as things like this just don’t happen.

"I haven’t even been able to think about our wedding, but I just hope he will still be there to walk me down the aisle and it can still go ahead.

"Our priority is him getting better, but I would ask anybody with information about what happened to please contact police.

"Put yourselves in our position. Imagine what you would want if this happened to your loved one. Please don’t protect somebody that could do this and hurt my dad."

A 25-year-old man was arrested near to the scene of the attack on suspicion of affray and a 32-year-old woman has since been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. They have both been released under investigation.

Somerset County Gazette:

Detective Inspector Mark Davis, from GMP’s City of Manchester team, said: "This should have been a celebratory night out ahead of one of the biggest moments of his life, walking his daughter down the aisle at her wedding, but instead Gary is in hospital in a critical condition.

"His family have been left distraught by the attack and we are doing all we can to support them and establish the exact circumstances of what happened.

"I would like to continue to appeal for anybody with information to come forward and help our investigation.

"This was a large brawl in the city centre at a time when a lot of people would be leaving bars and clubs.

"It might be that you witnessed something but didn’t think to contact police at the time. If so, please get in touch with us as soon as possible."

Somerset County Gazette:

Anyone with any information should call 101 quoting incident number 190 of February 10 or independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555111.

*The family do not want Gary’s surname to be released at this time or the specific area of Somerset they are from.