Italian man sentenced to three and a half years in prison for assaulting Liverpool fan Sean Cox outside Anfield

A fundraiser was set up for the Reds supporter after he suffered serious head injuries last April

The Italian man accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Liverpool fan Sean Cox before the Champions League match with Roma was sentenced to three and a half years in prison at Preston Crown Court on Thursday. Cox suffered serious and catastrophic head injuries when attacked outside Liverpool's Anfield stadium on April 24, 2018, ahead of the Reds' semi-final meeting with the Italian team. Simone Mastrelli entered a guilty plea to unlawfully and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm. He was arrested in Italy and extradited last month and will serve three and a half years in prison. The 30-year-old from Rome also pleaded not guilty to a separate charge of violent disorder, which the court accepted and will lie on file - meaning there is evidence but little public interest in proceeding on that count - a notion often used due to the more serious nature of the other offence. Following the attack, Cox was treated at the specialist brain injuries unit of Liverpool's Walton Centre before moving to Dublin's Beaumont Hospital, closer to his home of County Meath, Ireland. Well wishers have joined together to support a fundraiser set up to help him and his family, including Jamie Carragher and Roma club president James Pallotta. In the meantime, 53-year-old Cox has continued his recovery, which wife Martina described as showing "small steps of progress" in November. "He has a limited amount of words, very small amount, he can’t sit up," she told RTE’s Late Late Show. "He can’t walk so it’s pretty horrendous really still, but he is making progress and it is small steps so we take every step as a positive because that is what we do when you are in this situation."