A WAR veteran who "rescued" his wife from a care home has ended his battle for her to be allowed to live with him permanently.

But Dennis Cramp, 80, will be allowed to have his 88-year-old wife Maria home for private visits after an agreement was reached with social services bosses.

The ex-paratrooper, of Maudsley Street, Accrington, said he was "half-satisfied" by the compromise, thrashed out when his case went to Blackburn County Court yesterday.

Mr Cramp prompted the legal row in May when he walked into the Hollies nursing home, Clayton-le-Moors, and took his wife back to their house.

She had been taken to the Hollies after social services bosses decided she was too frail to stay at home.

Lancashire County Council took Mrs Cramp back to the nursing home after getting a "guardian-ship order" giving it custody of Mrs Cramp - but her husband pledged to get her back again.

Mr Cramp, who fought in the 1944 battle of Arnhem in Holland, said he was capable of looking after his wife and that she wanted to live with him.

But yesterday he agreed to the compromise before the county court heard his appeal against the order.

Other ex-paratroopers turned out to support Mr Cramp, who said: "I am half-satisfied.

"I have had to agree because I probably would have ended up with nothing."

Mr Cramp said the agreed amount of time his wife could come home was "not enough".

It means she can return home for the first time since May.

He said she will first come home for two hours, one day a week for two weeks, then two hours, two days a week for four weeks and then three hours, three days a week for four weeks. The visits will then be reviewed.

Mr Cramp, who visits his wife every day, said: "I know what she wants.

"She says to me 10, 20 times a day, let's go home'."

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