A man who left a Liverpool fan in a coma has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Simeone Mastrelli pleaded guilty to attacking Sean Cox outside Anfield stadium before a Champions League semi-final tie with AS Roma on April 24 last year.
The 30-year-old was extradited last month on a European Arrest Warrant.
Preston Crown Court heard that Mastrelli picked out Mr Cox on Walton Breck Road just moments before kick-off because he was wearing a Liverpool scarf.
Prosecutors also disclosed the full extent of the life-changing injuries of the 53-year-old, who was knocked unconscious by Mastrelli during the incident.
Mr Cox currently suffers from vision problems, an inability to talk and communicate his needs, weakness to the left side of his body and a difficulty swallowing.
Such is the extent of the father of three’s injuries, Keith Sutton, prosecuting, said: “The reality is that he is unlikely to live independently again.”
In court, Mastrelli pleaded guilty to unlawfully and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Cox, from Dunboyne, County Meath in Ireland.
He will serve a three-and-a-half year sentence and becomes the third man to be jailed in connection with the attack following two previous convictions last year.
Daniele Sciusco, 29, was jailed for two-and-a-half years in August after admitting violent disorder while another Roma fan was also given three years behind bars.
Filippo Lombardi, 21, was cleared of inflicting grievous bodily harm but, like Sciusco, was convicted on violent disorder charges.