Friday, August 28, 2026
AN investigation is underway after a man who was injured during an aggravated burglary sadly died.
Police were called at shortly before 3am Wednesday, April 29th following the break-in at an address on Moss Close in Helmshore.
The offenders broke in and assaulted the 85-year-old man when he confronted them.
The victim was taken to hospital with a head injury and cuts to the face and while he was originally discharged, he was taken back to hospital earlier this month and sadly died on August 12th.
He can now be named as Gordon Nicholass, 85, who lived at the address with his wife. Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this time, and they are being supported by specially trained family liaison officers.
In a tribute Gordon’s family said: “Gordon was a wonderful husband, dad and granddad. He was a lifelong motorcycle enthusiast and well known for his engineering skills. He was always there to do anything for anyone- family, friends even strangers, you name it! Mister fix it, Jack of all trades, we will all miss him dearly.”
A Home Office Postmortem examination into Gordon’s death has been carried out but further enquiries are being made to try and establish if the assault was a cause or contributory factor.
Our Force Major Investigation Team have launched an investigation, and enquiries are ongoing to try and identify the offender.
Extensive damage was caused to the property during the burglary although it does not appear that anything was taken.
Officers believe that the attack may have been targeted and we are working to try and establish a motive and the circumstances.
A dedicated team of officers and staff are working on the investigation and are carrying out house to house enquiries in the local area as well as checking CCTV and pursuing other lines of enquiry.
Det Chief Insp Jill Vescovi, of our Force Major Investigation Team, said: “First and foremost my thoughts are with Gordon’s family and loved ones. We will continue to offer them any support they need at this time.
“We are working hard to try and establish who has done this and why and I would appeal to anyone with any information, however insignificant they may think it is, to come forward and speak to us.
“I would ask anyone in the area to please check CCTV /Doorbell cameras for any suspicious activity, people or vehicles that may have been in the area at around the time of the offence or in the days beforehand.”
Anyone with information should call us on 101 quoting log 0126 of April 29th.
You can also contact independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.