Sean Cox’s attacker gets three and a half years for inflicting severe head injuries at Anfield

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

An Italian national has been jailed for three-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a Liverpool supporter outside Anfield stadium.

Sean Cox, 53, a father of three from Dunboyne in Co Meath, Ireland, suffered catastrophic head injuries in the attack, which took place before the Champions League semi-final first-leg between Liverpool and AS Roma on 24 April last year.

He has been recovering at the National Rehabilitation hospital in Dún Laoghaire after he spent four and a half weeks at the Walton Centre in Liverpool, a specialist neurological unit for brain injuries, following the incident.

Simone Mastrelli, 30, from Rome, appeared at Preston crown court on Thursday and entered a guilty plea to unlawfully and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The Crown Prosecution Service allowed a separate count of violent disorder to lie on file after it accepted his not-guilty plea to the charge.

Cox’s wife, Martina, was in court for the hearing.

Mastrelli was extradited to the UK last month after being arrested on a European arrest warrant in his home country.

Another Roma fan, Filippo Lombardi, 21, was cleared of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Cox in October, but he was jailed for three years for violent disorder.

A third man, Daniele Sciusco, 29, from Rome, admitted violent disorder before the match and was jailed for two and a half years in August 2018.