Maureen Kent, 28, a mother-of-four, suffered head injuries during an incident in the car park of the Shoulder of Mutton at Walton upon Trent, on Bank Holiday Monday.

She died in the specialist head injuries unit of Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre.

A 28-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman, both from Stoke-on-Trent, were previously charged with attempted murder. The woman also faces an allegation of theft from the pub.

Organ transplant

Mrs Kent's husband Chris told of the decision to switch off her life support machine and use her organs for transplants.

"It was a difficult decision made easy because we now know that Maureen will live on by helping others," he said.

Chris has vowed to bring up his wife's four children - Stephanie, 10, Craig, 8, Cheryl, 5 and two year old Jane - as his own.

He revealed how tragedy has struck the children before - they lost their real father David to cancer in 1996.

"The kids have been through so much but they were just beginning to smile again. Now this has happened," he said.

"We hoped and prayed she would make it. But then the doctors told me that she was clinically dead and they would switch off the machines as soon as they were ready for the transplants.

"They are lovely kids and I will be their daddy because that is what Maureen would have wanted. She was a wonderful mother and they will miss her dreadfully."

"It is such a terrible waste of a beautiful life."