Medics thought it was a stroke, until grandfather's X-ray revealed this …

A GRANDFATHER who thought he had suffered a stroke until doctors found a bullet in his head has no idea why he was shot, police said yesterday.

• The shocking CT scan image appears to show a 'bullet' lodged in the skull. Picture: PA

Builder Peter Hesford, 61, was struck in the head by a bullet while he was gardening.

He is in a serious but stable condition in hospital after being hit by the bullet, which is lodged in his brain.

It was thought the father of six had suffered a stroke during the incident at 3pm on 19 April.

But scans at Wythenshawe Hospital revealed the bullet embedded in his brain after it entered his head through his eye.

Mr Hesford, who is secretary of Altrincham Football Club and has three grandsons, has no memory of what happened. Doctors had to stop surgery to remove the bullet for fear it could kill him.

Marie Fuller, 50, his partner of 23 years, who is a mental health nurse, said the family are just waiting to wake up from the "nightmare".

She said: "We thought that he had had a stroke and hit his glasses on something as he fell, causing it to shatter into his eye. His speech was incoherent so he couldn't tell us what had happened.

"The paramedics thought he had had a stroke too. Then they did some brain scans in hospital and that's when they said it looked like he had been shot.

"It is a nice area we live in. The street is a dead end, so someone must have seen something or know something."

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Eckersley, from Greater Manchester Police, said the case is "probably the strangest incident" that he has ever investigated. He added: "We are hoping this media appeal will prompt some information to come in.

"I am convinced that someone knows something that can help us. We cannot rule out that it is a piece of shrapnel that has got into his eye – but as you can see from the CT scan, it looks like a bullet.

"We can also not rule out that this bullet was fired into the air and then came down and went into his eye, but at the moment it remains a mystery."

Mr Hesford, from Chorlton, Greater Manchester, was later transferred to Hope Hospital.

He has lost his sight in his left eye and is partly paralysed down his right side.

He is sleeping most of the time and his speech is slurred, but he recognises his family and knows he has been shot.

Ms Fuller added: "He said he doesn't have any enemies.

"The doctors say he has post-traumatic stress amnesia so we have been told not to ask him anything else about what happened.

"He has told the police that he didn't see anyone, so we are just hoping that someone else did.

"The not knowing is just making it harder."