A FRAIL war veteran subjected to a four-month campaign of terror in his own home by teenagers has died.

Widower Frank Lavington, who was deaf and partially sighted, suffered relentless attacks on his property in Millbrook in Southampton.

Neighbours in Wimpson Lane said the pensioner, who passed away aged 97, never recovered from the onslaught, which included stones being thrown through his window and small change he was saving for charity being stolen.

The two teenagers convicted of the offences avoided a jail sentence and were instead given 12-month supervision orders.

Manish Patel, sub-postmaster at Wimpson post office, next door to Mr Lavington's house, said: "It just really knocked him, he went downhill very quickly.

"After it had all happened he could barely even walk, he was never the same.

"A year before he was even able to put up a fence outside his house. He would even be up on my roof fixing things.

"But he was quite old-school, so would never talk about what he went through."

During the incidents, which happened from July last year, the youths even broke into the property while Mr Lavington was on holiday and rummaged through drawers, leaving belongings strewn across the floor.

The two boys, aged 14 and 15, were sentenced at Southampton Crown Court in May this year.

Mr Lavington, who served in the merchant navy during the Second World War, told the Daily Echo afterwards that he did not know if their sentences would be effective.

An arson attack had forced to him to put a stop to his favourite hobby of pottering about in his shed when it was burnt out.

Neighbour Helen O'Connor, 61, said Mr Lavington had recently been in hospital for a cancer-related illness before passing away last week at the house he had lived in for 40 years.

"I think what happened really hastened his death," she said.

"What he went through was terrible.

"He had always wanted to help people - it offended him if you needed something doing and you didn't ask him.

"He went downhill quickly after what happened."