Family's 'never ending nightmare' as Man United fan dies 13 months after Benidorm attack and cops hunt killer

It was the ultimate "lads trip".

Thirty friends from Manchester spending a week in Benidorm to mark a pal's 50th birthday and watching the 2018 World Cup.

They arrived on Thursday June 21 with high hopes for Gareth Southgate's England who had already won their first game three days earlier, defeating Tunisia 2-1 thanks to an injury time goal from Harry Kane.

The next day Mike Rydings, a builder grandad-of-four from Wythenshawe, and the rest of the party went into town, visiting venues on Avenue de Mallorca - a strip of bars and clubs.

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A life-long Manchester United fan, Mike and some of the group inevitably visited the Stretford End sports bar.

Described by his sister as the "life and soul of the party" he would have been in his element.

By the time he moved on to the Hippodrome bar after midnight he was accompanied by just one other from the party as the others went back to their holiday apartments.

It was there that in a second his life would change forever and ultimately Greater Manchester Police would be left with an unsolved murder investigation.

The football fan dad had an argument with a man from another group. It escalated outside the bar and he suffered a head injury from which he would never recover - dying over a year later aged 48.

Mike's sister, Nikki Howard, told the Manchester Evening News : "Mike spent 13 months in Salford Royal Hospital on the Critical Care Unit where he was unable to speak or move.

"Only his eyes were his very limited communication via blinking although most of the time his injury was so extreme that very often Mike was completely unaware of where he was, who his family were and