A DEVASTATED family is to take out a private prosecution against police over the death of a father-of-three.

Paul Wardell, 32, was with his sister, Karen Squires, and his children, Ashley, eight, and Simon, 12, when a gang attacked him and broke his skull using baseball bats and martial arts fighting sticks.

The attack, in the street outside his Teesside home, continued while a terrified Karen called police on her mobile phone.

Cleveland Police charged three youths with violent disorder and one of them with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

All three pleaded not guilty, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) discontinued the case because of insufficient evidence.

After the decision by the CPS, the family said Mr Wardell suffered nightly attacks on his house in Mansfield, Thornaby, with eggs, stones and bins being thrown at his windows and house.

He also returned from a holiday to find someone had daubed paint on his front doorstep.

His family said that on the advice of Cleveland Police, Mr Wardell kept a dossier itemising attacks, the time they happened and the names of those responsible.

But they said the police failed to take action.

Mr Wardell was found hanged at his home on Tuesday, January 13. An inquest into his death opened on Thursday.

On Monday, his sister, Karen Squires, went to see a solicitor about suing Cleveland Police.

Ms Squires, 35, said: "I really want something done, because it is so unfair."

His mother, June Marron, said: "We have had no justice.

"The police told him to write everything down and he did, and they did nothing for him.

"He used to be a happy person, but this last year he became very depressed. We always managed to talk him round, but it absolutely haunted him."

A spokesman for Cleveland Police said: "A full investigation is being carried out on behalf of the Coroner and all the facts will be put before him."