The robbers who attacked a deaf youngster and took his motorbike deprived him of a final conversation with his dying grandfather.

Simon Brooks was riding to see Guy Northover when he was hauled off his machine and assaulted by two thugs.

He was taken to the police station by passers-by but by the time he saw his grandfather the next day the 92-year-old had suffered a stroke and was unable to talk.

Mr. Northover died yesterday.

Simon's mother, Paulina Brooks, said of her father: “On Monday he was much more with it. But on Tuesday he was completely out of it.

“He could understand but could not speak. Simon will never know what he might have said.

“It was a terrible thing he didn't get to see his grandfather that night. I took him yesterday morning and he saw him before he died.”

She said the grandfather had learned about the attack on Simon and had been upset by it.

Simon never usually rode his bike at night said his mother, but had decided to go immediately after learning how serious his grandfather's condition was.

Mrs. Brooks was finishing her meal at their Pembroke home after spending all afternoon by her father's bedside.

“Simon said ‘I am going myself to see my grandfather'.”

She had planned to follow on minutes later but was then called from the Police station and told her son had been robbed in daylight at 8 p.m. on Pitts Bay Road.

Mrs. Brooks said her son used hearing aids but with his helmet on couldn't hear anything when the robbers called out to him.

“These boys rode beside him and made him stop. He looked at them trying to understand what they were saying.”

He was hauled off the bike leaving him to flag down a passer-by.

He suffered a grazed knee and hand and a sprained ankle during the attack and lost the bike he had saved hard for by working in the back room at the Leisure Time.

“It only came two months ago on his 16th birthday. Being small and deaf I was terribly worried he would take it personally. He's only five foot two,” said Mrs. Brooks.

“I was worried he would go into shock. He's strong now and angry and desperate to find his bike.

“He's still frightened. We have another bike in the family but he is really frightened because he can't hear when they are coming up beside him.”

She said reading about other bike-jackings in the newspaper had helped Simon.

“It was good he knows he wasn't the only one. He knows everyone is taking it seriously.

“It could have been worse. We are grateful he wasn't knifed.”

The youngster is having counselling at Saltus after his trauma. Mrs. Brooks said: “The school has been terrific.”

Simon's father Alan said Simon saw his grandfather every day.

“Pa was keen on motorbikes and imported one of the first BSAs into South America. He was quite pleased Simon had his own bike.”

Mrs. Brooks said Simon had been fastidious in locking the bike, thinking the danger would come when it was parked.

Dealing in stolen bikes was big business said Mrs. Brooks but she said the new trend of highway robbery was even more disturbing.

“It's terrible, they are getting desperate.”

Police should step up patrols urged Mrs. Brooks and pull out all the stops to catch the culprits.

The missing bike is a blue Yamaha V50 with license plate number 940AE.